I just finished playing for another children’s Christmas service which, as usual, was full of joy and cuteness and more than a few muffled laughs.
Highlights of the evening included my organ student accompanying hymns with excellence, little voices reading big words from Scripture, and pews full of beaming parents and grandparents.
Humor from the evening included the refrain of “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” which was very clearly the littlest kids’ favorite part. I was accompanying the singing from the organ and the plan was for the congregation to sing the verses while the kids took the refrain. But before I could even release the final chord of the verses, I was met with the most enthusiastic chorus of “GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN” I’ve ever heard. Every time was more and more shouty and excited than the last and it was all I could do to keep playing through my laughter.
Those kids deserve a round of applause. I wish every congregation was as enthusiastic as those kids—if maybe a bit more tuneful.
Other humorous bits included a small reader telling us we needed to “repeat” our sins rather than repent of them. But that can’t top last year, when a little girl announced with complete confidence (and a little sass) that Joseph was “just a man.” (The text is “Joseph, a just man.”)
I admit that I’ve occasionally wondered why we continue to put on children’s Christmas services and concerts year after year. They always contain a hint of chaos and a fair amount of child-wrangling on the part of the adult helpers. Why not just call it a day after our usual church services? Why not let the whole cat-herding, chorus-shouting ordeal go?
Because it’s good—for the kids and for us.
It’s good to let the children lead the way sometimes, to not always keep them tucked away in childcare so the adults can enjoy services unencumbered. It’s good to watch their wriggly feet as they try their best to worship a Lord they are just beginning to know. It’s good to listen to their high-pitched voices tackle the tough Scripture passages we pray they will come to love.
It is good to let children lead us in celebrating our Savior, who loves kids and, moreover, became one.
However hectic they may seem, I love kids’ Christmas services. If you let them, they (the services, not the kids) will smack you in the face with the sheer marvel of the Christmas story: the Eternal King of the Universe was born and raised as a human child.
I’d like to think that Jesus had a favorite children’s song, perhaps shouting along with equal parts obedience and enthusiasm like the kids today. On that note, I’d like to leave you with a slightly revised version of a poem from an earlier post:
After a Children’s Christmas Service
Would the Light of the World have liked light-up shoes?
Or eagerly volunteered to switch on the tree?
Or struggled not to wiggle when asked to stand and speak?
Would the boy who heard the morning stars rejoice
Shout-sing his favorite song with all his voice?
Would he sprint, unsteady, to the altar
Or jump merrily from its step—
Bowing midair lest he forget
Upon landing?
We often consider him as a baby
With all his infant needs,
But rarely dare to think that he
Would inherit the interests of toddlers
And exult with a little boy’s energy.
Ryanne Molinari 