The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Conviction

Walmart had their Christmas decorations out before the school supplies were off the shelves. 

Emotionally, I was just not ready for that.

I'm still not ready.

I'm not a crafty girl by any means, and my house is never the perfectly decorated house.

My Christmas tree usually goes up after Thanksgiving, and I may or may not still have lights tangled up in a chair on my porch.

Let me just clarify here: Christmas is in the middle of basketball season. We are never home during basketball season. This season, over Christmas break, we have not one, not two, but three tournaments scheduled.

And I'm ok with that... Because Christmas is not about decorations.

Because Christmas is about Jesus and family (and my basketball girls are family) and Amazon gift cards for me to buy more books...

Ok, I'm only partially kidding about that last one... but if you were wondering what I'd like, well, there you go.

Anyway, I get kind of emotional when I see all those Christmas trees up at the beginning of school. I think we are too guilty of trying to skip ahead in life. I spend too much time trying to convince myself to slooowww down and enjoy the moment...

And it seems like we skip right over being thankful.

Even though Thanksgiving is officially my least favorite holiday, because I don't like turkey and I don't like pumpkin... but I do like my Aunt Nora's mashed potatoes and banana pudding.

I digress...

The whole point of this post is that today I found myself sitting in a theatre wiping tears from my eyes as I watched a Christmas play. 

Yes, even though it is not yet Thanksgiving...

Because Jesus is Jesus even though it isn't Christmas yet, and His story is worth telling any day of the year.

It had been awhile since I'd saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  We took the youth group from church today because this is the play we'll be putting on, and we thought it would be nice for them to see it firsthand. We scoped out which part would be played by which kid. I found it extremely fitting when I saw that Caleb's part asks all the questions... my son, you know the one, who has his hand raised and says, "I have a question."

But the tears came at the end, as the unlikely Mary patted that baby Jesus doll and I realized just how guilty we are...

As a Christian, so many of my friends/family/loved ones are Christians, too.

While they may not believe exactly the same as me, we have the same fundamental beliefs.

I was raised in the Bible belt.  We pray and we say grace and we know all about God...even if you weren't raised in a church. (And I found myself thinking of A Country Boy Can Survive right there... "We say grace, and we say M'am, and if you ain't into that..." except this is a family friendly post.)

And so many times we can get caught up in appearances.

Today, I was reminded that Jesus came to save those who were lost.  He has saved me, thankfully... but that doesn't mean that I can just rest on my laurels...

He saved me because He wanted a relationship with me, but He's not one of those guys who can only have one best friend. He wants every one to have a relationship with Him.. but how can they know Him if they've never seen Him? 

One of the last things He told the disciples to do was to go and tell the world about Him.

Tell the world...

Even if they were different.

Even if they were mean and nasty and didn't know His story.

Even if they don't see things the way that we do.

We're reminded that it is easy to love those who love us... but somewhat more difficult (and more in need of Christ) to love our enemies or those people who just stinkin' get on our last nerve. Sin is sin, but we're told not to judge.  Rather, we're told to love God, and love each other.

Sometimes that is easier said than done.

Funny how a girl can get convicted at a Christmas play over a month before Christmas time...

Sharing the Christmas spirit is more than buying presents... preparing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child or sponsoring a foster kid (both of which are worthy endeavors).  Sharing the Christmas spirit should make us excited... kind of like Gladys in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, who finally gets it.

"Shazam! Unto you a child is born."

And that's the best news of all... and totally worth telling everyone that they need to find Him.

Even if it makes us uncomfortable... because I'm pretty sure there was nothing comfortable about having a baby without an epidural and then laying Him in a manger.

Shazam...