Christmas eve

We sat in a semi-dark santuary listening to the choir sing "While we are waiting, come". It was a beautiful arrangement. The choir sounded soothing. "Mary and Joseph" stepped up to the manger. Mary and Joseph are picked each year from the pool of parents who have just had a baby.

We sang "Away in the manger". The cattle are lowing, The poor Baby wakes, But little Lord Jesus, No crying He makes.

Really? Good children don't cry? There is a child crying two pews back. He's upset about something.

I guess we can't all be "Little Lord Jesus". All can't be perfect.

Life is messy. As we sang "Joy to the world" a child dropped a handful of marbles. They rolled down beneath the pews and stopped at the kneelers at the front of the church. I picked up some and handed them back to the parent. I found another and another.

Somebody next to me was singing loudly in an operatic voice. Angels was mispelled in the bulletin. It read "Go to Bethleham and see, Him of whom the angles sing."

Christmas Eve service pairs down the mess of Christmas, and makes it more approachable. We don't like messes. We would prefer our "Little Lord Jesus" to not cry when the cows awaken him. We prefer a sterile service with comfortable sights and smells to Mary pushing out the afterbirth stinking of manure.

One approach isn't more noble than the other. I just don't want to be so far removed the Christmas story that I don't remember that life is messy and not a tableau at the front of the auditorium.