Our Son, the Stand-In Shepherd

It's a wintry wonderland here in New Jersey, and the weather this morning was particularly bad. Despite shoveling the snow twice in the past 36 hours, I could only stand helplessly as heavy snow fell from the sky early this morning. Unable to make it out to our church in the city despite the snow tapering off, we decided to see if we could attend service at the local Presbyterian church in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, we found that the church was closed due to the snow and were on the way home when I saw out my driver's side window that another local church, Community Congregational Church, had just begun service and we could still catch most of it. So we pulled into the parking lot and scurried in.

As we stepped into the hall near the sanctuary, we were welcomed warmly by an Asian gentleman, who turned to Daniel and said, "Hey there! Would you like to be a shepherd?" Before I could open my mouth, Sarah was enthusiastically volunteering our son and removing his jacket, hat and mittens. Daniel was then escorted to the chapel to be dressed in his full shepherd garb and given his plush lamb toy to carry, where other kids of all ages were similarly adorned in Nativity character outfits.

The service was fantastic and was similar to our annual Lessons and Carols service. There were children presentations and choirs performances interspersed with Scripture readings and a sermon. The music, which was led by a full-time worship director who had graduated from Juilliard (according to Sarah), was excellent. Daniel was quite a trooper marching down the aisle with the other shepherds holding his plush lamb in his arms and then stepping onto the stage as the older kids acted out the 2nd chapter of Luke.

I have to hand it to Daniel and his personal flexibility. He had barely walked into an unfamiliar church when he was volunteered to get dressed and play a role in the Christmas Pageant. It was actually a very welcoming thing to do by the kind folks at the church to allow our son to not just be a spectator, but allow him to dress up and be part of a story which he's heard so many times. I just wonder if I'd feel similarly welcomed if I stepped into a church as a visitor and someone thrust a guitar into my arms and said, "Hey there! Would you like to lead praise and worship?" Knowing me, I'd probably say yes.