another chapel story

last week I spoke at a local Christian school that many of our students attend. I started off with a reader’s theater style Christmas pageant, where students volunteered to be one of the characters in the Christmas story, and read their lines off of the screen. after that, I closed with some thoughts on Christmas.
I started taking volunteers. one girl that goes to our group, Elizabeth, really wanted to play the angel Gabriel. after we chose all of the characters, our play began. there was only one problem- the school that we were at had a messed up projector, and you couldn’t really see the words on the slides. this was especially hard for Elizabeth the angel, because Gabriel has a lot of lines in the Christmas story.
we got to one part, my favorite part, and there was just no way that Elizabeth was going to be able to read the lines of the story off of the slide- it was too messed up.
I said to her, “do you want to just read my script?”
she said, “no- I’ve been memorizing this verse- I can just say it from memory.”
then she turned to her peers in the crowd, held out her arms and said loudly:
“Do not be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people! Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you! He is Christ the Lord! This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
then the crowd of students in the audience played the company of angels.
they read their part off of the screen and loudly shouted:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."


and the beauty of the story came alive to me all over again.


merry Christmas!
God is love.
-rev-rob