Hot Pink Angel Wings

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I wanted to share a little something that I wrote a few years ago just after Nathan was born but before the blog existed. I hope you enjoy...

Dress rehearsal…Why is it that no matter how many practices you have for a Christmas program that the dress rehearsal is always a disaster? We had one such calamity at our church in December 2002. The program was to include several songs to be sung by the choir, a few solos, and of course, a nativity scene. Since I had given birth to a (beautiful) baby boy just two months prior to the big show, our newly expanded family was asked to play the Holy Family.

Since Mary had no lines to read, and the nativity scene was relatively short, I agreed to do it. But before the dress rehearsal even began, I had some misgivings. We had a large crop of preschool-aged children in our church that year, and they were going to be the only other characters in the nativity. The mothers of these children frantically tried to dress the girls in baptismal robes and hot pink angel wings while trying to transform their daddies’ bath robes in to shepherds costumes for the boys. Fortunately, my baby boy was tucked away safely in the nursery. My friend Heather volunteered to make “Joseph” and me some makeshift costumes. We had to cut mine open on the side to allow for the “baby weight” I was still carrying.

Once dressed, we made our way to the stage where the angels were poking each other with their wings, and the shepherds were tripping over their robes and tormenting the angels with their staffs (a.k.a. large plastic candy canes covered with brown paint). I thought the whole scene was ridiculous. “Why even bother”, I remember thinking. The practice seemed to last for hours, and I just ready to be finished with the whole thing.

So, the big night arrives. We still had some dressing difficulties. More children showed up than were expected, so we where throwing together some more costumes. I went to the cry room with my newborn to await our cue to enter. It was about 150° in our church that night, so I stripped "Baby Jesus" down to his diaper and wrapped him loosely in the swaddling cloth. I also stuck his pacifier in his mouth and prayed to the Lord that we would get through the next few minutes.

We took our place on stage as the Christmas story was read and the angels and shepherds joined us. Something nearly miraculous happened on that stage. These previously rowdy children, who had not yet practiced with a real baby on stage, were mesmerized by him. As a sat there looking into their adoring faces, I was overcome with emotion. If this human baby could bring such joy to the faces of these little children, I could not fathom the emotion that the original angels and shepherds must have felt when they looked into the face of our Savior. I don’t know if the post-partum hormones had anything to do with it, but I fought hard to keep the tears from streaming down my face. I think a few of them escaped anyway.

Later, I was sorry for the attitude that I had during the dress rehearsal. God moved me in a special way that night. I was reminded of something that deep-down I knew all along. It doesn’t matter if the CD is not cued to the right spot, or if the person sitting next to you sings off key, or even if the angels have hot pink wings, the glory of the Lord can shine through when we make the effort to present his message to others.