During our
children’s discipleship group a couple weeks ago, we read the story of Jesus’
birth from Luke 2 and then acted out the story.
While
reading the story, André, Ben, and Julia each read a section - 7 verses- while
Marcos wrote down all the characters that appeared in the story. During the
middle of the reading, Marcos looked at me, with that grin of his and twinkle
in his eyes and said, “Now I know what
story this is…”
We divided
the roles amongst us and grabbed some costumes and began improvising.
I was
Joseph as no one else wanted that role, Julia was Mary.
While Mary
and I were acting out the first scene of hearing the decree made by Cesar
(André), the angel Gabriel (Ben) and baby Jesus (Marcos) were talking rather
loudly on the side. I tried quieting them, even saying “quiet on the set” in
English and trying to translate my “theater talk” in Portuguese (I don’t think
it directly translates) and em fim it
just wasn’t “working” to keep everyone quiet while we acted out the scene. Baby
Jesus kept trying to enter the scene, even when it wasn’t his turn yet.
The drama continued-
both the actual drama of the story and the drama of the ones acting- in the
sense of noise, wanting to enter in the scene prematurely, and the pure and
integral improvisation made by children who know each other well and love to be
silly with each other.
It wasn’t
the “exact” story and dramatization of Luke 2, but it was authentic. It wasn’t at all the picture that we have in our minds
of the first Christmas (at least the one I have in my brain) of being quiet,
calm, peaceful, tranquil, perfect
(and after a little thought, I realize that what I mean by “perfect” is
“orderly”) but maybe our improvised “version” of the Christmas story was a bit
more similar to that of the first.
After our
final scene of the shepherds visiting baby Jesus (that included me telling one
of the shepherds that he couldn’t drag his “lamb” around and soon after this, pulling that same lamb off of baby
Jesus), we took off our costumes, sweaty (it’s nearly summer here!) and tired,
and gathered in a circle. “Do you know what I thought while we were acting?” I
asked the kids. I told them that at first, with all the noise and things that
didn’t seem to go right, it didn’t seem to be the Christmas story that we see
portrayed in movies, books, or nativity sets where everything seems
perfect. “Foi uma bagunça.” Piped in Ben. “It was a mess.”
It was a mess.
Ben’s raw
and honest observation of our reenactment of the birth of Jesus helped pull the
ideas together. It seemed to “click” for me.
Jesus
entered into a world that was a mess.
Jesus
entered into my mess.
He came to
be peace, He came to be God with us.
And He
wants to enter in to your life- whether it be that of a Hallmark card or a
train wreck, or perhaps a not so happy medium. Wherever you are at, Jesus wants to enter in and do life with you.
Simply put- He loves you.
