"Hey, God dwelled among us!"

As a Librarian, I have become familiar with the children's book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. If you are not familiar with the story, I highly recommend that you run out to your local library and grab it. It's a wonderful Christmas read that will keep you laughing all the way through and then it grabs hold of your heartstrings in the final chapter.

To sort of catch you up to speed with the book without spoiling it, a group of totally mischievous, bad to the core kids, a.k.a. "The Herdmans" show up at the local church and end up comprising all of the major cast of the annual Christmas Pageant. The book details the misadventures the church faces at the hands of the Herdmans and the makings of what is supposed to be a beautiful re-telling of the Christmas story.

Turns out at the end of the book, this Christmas Pageant was exactly what the Herdmans needed....for the first time ever they got what Christmas is really all about. The final line of the book explains it all: "Hey, unto YOU a child is born!" It signifies that they really did get...for ALL of us, even the lying, cursing, yelling, mischievous, down right mean Herdmans, a child was born.

I tell you this because we have our own little set of Herdmans at our church. Six of them. They really are wonderful children, but they are totally mischievous. These guys (and girls) really keep me on my toes...bringing lizards to Sunday School via their shirt pocket, seeing who can steal the most cookies from the Fellowship Hall before I find them, betting on who can fit the most bathroom breaks into the sermon, calling each other names, hosting yelling contests, etc. I'm sure there will be many more posts on our version of the Herdman family.

For all their faults, these kids are soaking up all of the Jesus stuff that I can throw at them. I gave them all brand new Bibles and, not expecting much, I asked them to read the Book of John. Well, they did read the Book of John. Not only did they read it, but for the first time ever, just like the Herdmans, they got it. When they popped onto my van Sunday morning, they were bubbling over with excitement. I asked how things were going and immediately one of the girls shouted at me, "Hey! Did you know that Jesus became flesh and dwelled among us?!?!?" I asked her if she knew what that meant and she said, "Yup. It means that Jesus gave up Heaven just to live here and on Earth and be just like us."

Yes, that's exactly what it means. Isn't it awesome how God works...even through a second grader?

Unto ALL of us a child was born. Thank you, God, for sending your Son....not just for the wealthy, the elite, the grown-ups, the people with their acts together....but for ALL of us.