People are running down the hall bearing mounds of fluffy fabric, leaving behind trails of white fuzz.
That can only mean one thing--sheep costumes! Lots and lots of sheep costumes. And cows. Lots of cows.
Because in the best tradition of the children's Christmas pageant, the smallest kids are the animals that crowd around the manger.And we have lots of small children.
They're unbearably cute. However, getting them up onto the chancel, where they can be seen, all at one time, all in more or less one place, all singing more or less the same words--well, during practice, chaos is the word that comes into my mind as one takes off down the aisle, a couple of more explore the piano, our little cow princess takes a twirl in the center of the floor. I think I'll take a moment here to explain about our cow princess. The princess, a lovely and very bright pre-schooler, insisted that she play the part of a princess in the production. Rebecca, our gifted and incredibly patient director of Children's ministry, told her that there weren't princesses in this story. "Well", said the little one, "there are kings. If there are kings, there must be princesses!"
Its hard to disagree with that. Suddenly envisioning a plethora of princesses, Rebecca responded nobly. "The cows have a secret princess. You must not tell anyone that you are, under this cow pancho, a princess!" Which I think is working, but we'll see.
Chaos. However, I think it probably was chaotic two thousand years ago. We're used to seeing the lovely representations of the Nativity, Joseph and Mary beaming down at the sparkling babe, animals standing around reverently, shepherds bowing.
Except Bethlehem, that night, was full to overflowing. People were everywhere, trying to find a place to sleep. I suspect that Joseph and Mary weren't the only people who couldn't find room at the inn. Many of those travellers must have come on donkeys--creating a animal gridlock and stabling problem. Children were probably running around, with parents trying to keep them close. The sheep, I am sure, weren't lined up neatly. Sheep never line up neatly.
Which brings me back to our little animals. They probably won't line up neatly on the 16th, for the pageant.
Cows and sheep may be wandering off, or dancing to the music in their heads. And that's going to be great. Because Christmas isn't, to me, about perfection. It's about a child being born. He was welcomed then in confusion and chaos. We will do that too, this year. We will, in confusion and chaos, once again welcome the Christ child in our midst.
