A FAMILY CHRISTMAS SERVICE AND PAGEANT

We had a wondrous and joy-filled family Christmas Service a few weeks ago. It’s always a gift when I’m given the chance to weave Godly Play into the fabric of our church family. In our class, the children had been steeped in the Advent lessons and the changing lights of the seasons as we made our way to Bethlehem, getting ready to enter the mystery of Christmas. I confess, my favorite part of the whole season is the Magi. Growing up, no one talked about how the Magi arrived later, that Christmas wasn’t “all at once.” As an adult, I love the time it takes the Magi to arrive reminding us to stay fully in the season of Christmas - God and the Church have conspired to offer us so many lessons in patience and preparedness!

“Be not afraid. 

Tomorrow will come. 

And the next month, and this next year. 

Be messengers and servants of God, 

and all will be well.”

This was a message I heard recently. I had wondered (with a lot more words) how the Christmas spirit, expressed in story and song — resistance to empire, care for the poor, the Word born a wordless child, peace on earth — will carry on into the time beyond the days we may keep as “Christmas time.” The message was beautiful in its brevity and gentle in response, beginning as angels often do: Be not afraid. 

Amen.  And onward into the new year.

-Anna Thomas