Clueless about the Christmas Story

I had a really special experience this past December. There is a brand new Christian Club at DaZavala Middle school in Pasadena.

I sat down with the Teacher sponsors - Angie Sagner and Connie Henriques in late October or early November and helped them plan out the year. We talked about what they were going to need to do and how to get parental permission, parental support and local church support. I love doing this! It is visionary, but it also breaks things down into simple, manageable pieces.

Sometimes, the idea of running a Christian Club can be overwhelming to teachers who already have a full time job that can be very demanding and unending.

The organization that I work for - Cross in the City - is about 6 blocks from this school and they eagerly agreed to be this club's "back up snack support" - in other words, if a parent or a church doesn't agree to donate snacks for that week's meeting, Cross in the City will.

So, now you have all the back ground, let me get the real point of all this. The first meeting was organizational. I came on 12/10 with my nativity set to tell the Christmas story. This is the United States - everyone knows this story, right?

Oh, one more thing. Their first meeting was 4 students. This one was 8! They had doubled!

I unwrapped the figures and put them out. The students were all eyes, but very quiet. I asked if they knew why we started with a barn. All eyes, but no answers. I explained that this nativity set and others like it were to tell the story of Jesus' Birth. If they were tell the story of my birth, they would start with a hospital. But Jesus, was born in barn - so they start with a barn.

They knew who Mary was and they identified Baby Jesus, but they didn't seem to know who Joseph was or the shepherd or the wisemen.

So I told them how the shepherd were watching their sheep to make sure they didn't get eaten by wolves or bears and how an Angel appeared and then their was a whole bunch of Angel - a host with means Army. How many Angels in an Army? I asked.

The I talked about the Wisemen. I let them know that the wisemen and the shepherds were not there at the same time. I let them know that there were 3 gifts, but we don't know how many wisemen.

I reminded them that this was just a picture of events surrounding Jesus' birth.

One girl - so precious and cute - on my right in a pink jacket - answered all my questions when I reviewed the story with them, by holding up each piece of the set and asking the group - who is this?

But she answered the questions all using my words and thoughts. No regurgitated church or sunday school information, leaving me with the impression that this time, she had listened well, but this was the first time she had heard the story. This entire group of 8 was simply Clueless about the Christmas Story.

What a privilege to tell this story! What a blessing! What a great reminder that not everyone has heard this story!