Tomorrow is our Christmas pageant, and once again I have been asked to direct (after the upper-level Sunday School class decided on a script and casting). And once again we have integrated the younger classes' performance of a traditional pageant into the larger production. Last year we had an odd detective/time travel piece, which involved the main character actually interviewing Mary and Joseph, but this year the older kids are doing an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's story of the shoemaker who is told Jesus will visit him, only to have the Lord show up in the poor people he helps throughout the day. The pageant only happens in his mind as he reads the Gospel story, so there is no need for any of the biblical characters to speak.
One five-year-old girl in our church we knew had been pining for the role of Mary, and this situation made it possible for us to offer it to her. We were excited about it, her parents were excited about it, and we were certain she would be excited about it, but when her Dad told her she could be the mother of Jesus, she surprised him by saying, "I think I'd rather just be a sheep." She's since changed her mind and will be appearing as Mary tomorrow (if all goes well and stage-fright doesn't strike again), but it got me and my wife thinking, "What if Gabriel had gotten that response?"
"Hail, highly favored one! The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God!"
"Nah, thanks anyways, but I think I'd rather just be a sheep!"
Since God knows the end from the beginning, and knows our response before he makes an offer, it seems unlikely he sent Gabriel to other girls, but if he had, how many would have turned him down? How many would have turned down the role of Theotokos just to keep their ordinary lives and forgo the attention, the notoriety, the misunderstanding and the sorrow of being the mother of Jesus.
She must have been a very special girl!
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I've always liked that story, and I don't think I ever knew it was by Tolstoy. Good to know! Quite a few years ago a woman at our church read it at our Christmas Eve service while my brother provided acoustic guitar accompaniment. It was really nice. Anyway, it's sort of appropriate that this story was at the backdrop of your Mary's struggle - a reminder that as important as seeing God at work in others is seeing God at work in ourselves...
ReplyDeleteI actually was not familiar with the story prior to this year, but a favorite of mine has been Henry Van Dyke's "Fourth Wiseman", which makes much the same point. I'd love to dramatize that at some point, but it is more "adult" in subject matter and approach (including the slaughter of the innocents and the crucifixion of Jesus at key points). It's also much LONGER! Someday...
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