December 23, 2022

This photo of the Saint Anne's kids at the Christmas pageant last week has become my new favorite:

Each time I look at this photo, I notice something new. Every single person in this photo is doing something different: looking their own direction, focused on their own role or daydreaming, or playing peek-a-boo with Baby Jesus. There's a giraffe in the scene, for unknown reasons (it remained there for the entire service), off-scene we have our director trying to coordinate sheep, and our musicians coordinating lyrics. There would be two more shepherds who would join the scene later, jumping right in as if they were born for the role, and there's a star shining above it all.

A beautiful, holy, chaos. Holy, joy-filled, chaos. Could the very first Christmas night have been much different?!

May your Christmas be full of holy chaos as well. May you try to get Baby Jesus' to smile, may you get lost in your own thoughts, may unexpected animal friends show up sometimes to keep you company. May music be playing in your background. May you see something new every time you look out into the world - may you see God anew, everywhere you look.