2023 CHRISTMAS STORY

A Texas Christmas Play

LaFreda Perry talked over her shoulder as she scrambled breakfast eggs, “Here’s what’s happening this last week before Christmas; you six grandchildren are going to be in charge of taking care of the nativity scene. 

“I’m counting on you to take the responsibility of the nativity barn seriously.  Even though it is life-size and some of you may consider it a perfect playhouse, it is not a place to play.  You will need to have it swept, and any trash picked up by 10 am every morning before visitors come by.

Before dark you will need to turn on the three floodlights, and then at 10 pm every night you will need to shut them off. When you go on the last run, take flashlights and check the barn thoroughly to be sure nothing has wandered inside before you slide the doors shut.

“While you’re on the scene, you need to practice your parts for the Christmas Eve play. I know some of y’all have repeated the same lines for years, but Christmas is 100% about the birth of Jesus and the story doesn’t change!”

Timmy, the youngest and most vocal of the group said, “But couldn’t we at least add a talking sheep or maybe a dove singing O Little Town of Bethlehem?  I bet the audience would like to see something different.”

“Nonsense!” said LaFreda.  “The play is fine like it is.  Each year it reminds our community of the responsibilities that come along with believing in Christ’s birth.  The lines from the six actors are meant to take your mind off Christmas gifts and focus on what Christianity is all about.”  

“But the play is boring!  Even the old men in the crowd go to sleep leaning on their canes while we’re talking. It needs new lines.  It needs action!  Please think about letting us do something different this year.” Begged Jonathan, the oldest of the boys.

Six pairs of eyes belonging to Dolly, Jonathan, Jesse, Eva, Olivia, and Timmy rested heavily on their grandmother.    

Finally, she gave in, “Okay. This week I’ll give you the chance to rewrite the lines.  But no matter what you come up with, the story must clearly spell out what Jesus expects us to do to portray a Christlike spirit.

She added sternly, “Don’t get all silly-willy on the rewrites. Agreed?”

After breakfast, the grandchildren went to the nativity. Jonathan used a whisk brush to clean dirt off the wooden figurines of an angel, Joseph, Mary, the Baby Jesus, two shepherds and two sheep. Jesse used a broom to knock down the latest spider webs from the tall corners, and Dolly used a jeweler’s cloth to polish the angel’s halo. Timmy and Olivia scattered clean hay beneath the figurines, and Eva shook out Baby Jesus’ soft blanket and lovingly tucked it around Him as he lay in the manger.

For six consecutive nights, right before dark, Jonathan and Jesse went down to the nativity scene and turned on the three floodlights. Around 10 pm, all the children went to the nativity to turn them off. Once there, a different child from the night before took their flashlight and went inside the barn to make sure all was well. What they found inside those six nights provided the children with new material for the Christmas Eve play.

The day of the play, as laughter erupted repeatedly from the living room as the grandchildren practiced, LaFreda did her best not to worry about what those new lines might be as she busied herself in the kitchen.  She sent up a silent prayer that both the gathered crowd, and especially God, wouldn’t be offended.

That night as darkness fell around the nativity, the crowd became quiet as the Mayor stood on the wooden stage in front of it and read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from the gospel according to St. Luke 2:1-20.

After he’d finished, Jonathan assumed the role of MC by welcoming the crowd to the Christmas play and introducing the actors.  He ended by raising his arms and declaring, “Please enjoy our Texas Christmas Play.”

The first actor was Timmy, and as he stepped forward, a long broom rested across one shoulder. He said, “I am a follower of the eastern star. I arrived first at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love.

When I opened my downcast eyes after my prayer, I found a menagerie of mice busily shredding the corners of Baby Jesus’ blanket.”  

Timmy began frantically sweeping the ground with the broom and said, “My first instinct was to send them scurrying out of the barn and into the cold night, but I remembered I was standing beside the Christ Child. The scripture from Isaiah 58: 7 came to mind; Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear.  And even though these were but lowly mice, I gathered the shredded pieces of our Savior’s blanket and placed them in the back corner of the barn where the mice could find them. Hoping the pieces would soon become the warmth inside of a mouse’s nest. 

“Looking once again into the manger, I saw drops of water where Jesus’ tears normally should appear. Was it because I shared His blanket with the mice?”

Exiting, Timmy allowed Olivia to take center stage. She was twirling a red flyswatter and carrying a flashlight. Holding the flyswatter still she said, “I am a follower of the star in the eastern sky.  I arrived second at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love.”  

Turning and shining her flashlight toward the front of the nativity, the beam stopped on an oversized, armadillo-shaped stuffed animal that had come from LaFreda’s toy room. Olivia said, “When I opened my eyes after my prayer, I was startled by a hungry armadillo digging in the ground. Armed as I was, I raised my left hand to spotlight a way out of the barn while raising my right in preparation to swat at the armadillo’s hard shell, planning on prompting him toward a hasty retreat.” At these words, Olivia acted as if she was spanking the backside of the armadillo with the flyswatter.

She continued, “But I, too, remembered that in Isaiah 58:7 we are instructed to feed the hungry.  And although armadillos are known to be enemies of lawns and gardens, I took my snack pack of trail mix from my coat pocket, spread it on the ground beside the nativity, and herded the armadillo toward the food.  

“Passing back beside Baby Jesus, I saw drops of water glistening where teardrops should appear. I ask you; Do you think it was heavy dew leftover from the morning? Or happy tears shed from a Savior because of my kindness?”

As Olivia moved out of the spotlight Eva stepped forward. “I am a follower of the star in the eastern sky.  I arrived third at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love.  

To my surprise when I opened my eyes, I found tucked beneath the feet of the two shepherds, two long-eared jackrabbits.  These hares believed themselves to be hidden, because they’d flattened their long ears up alongside their heads and were sitting very still.

“I was armed with both spotlight and a baseball bat.” Eva stuck the flashlight between her knees while spotlighting Timmy and Olivia who were off to the left of the stage down on their knees, faces turned away from the audience, and sitting very still. Eva pretended to take several practice swings toward their heads as she continued, “and I considered bopping them toward the light.”

Waiting for the ripple of laughter to die down, she continued by saying, “But I remembered Matthew 5:16 that says, let your light shine before all people so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father.  

“And although they were but rabbits, thinking mistakenly that they were hidden, and no matter that they couldn’t hop away and spread the word of God, I chose to shine my spotlight toward the nearest exit and I nudged them out of the nativity with my shoe.”  Eva removed the flashlight from between her knees and nudged the two rabbits. The rabbits hopped away.

Turning back to the audience she said, “Passing back beside Baby Jesus, I saw drops of water where teardrops should appear. Was it my care for the two misguided jackrabbits that brought those happy tears?”

After Eva, Jesse took the stage saying, “I am a follower of the star in the eastern sky.  I arrived fourth at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love. 

When I finished, something on the ground caught my eye. I found a trio of fox kittens rolling about in play with their long red-tipped tails trailing in and out of the space at Mary’s feet.”

Taking off his coat and holding it out by the shoulders he said, “I went to use my coat to toss over them and capture them tight, thinking about caging them and calling them pets, when I remembered the verse Luke 6:31 Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.  So instead, I used my coat as a bullfighter uses his cape and hurried the fox from the nativity.” Jesse shook his coat and yelled “Ole, Ole” to the imaginary fox as he herded them off stage.

“Passing back beside Baby Jesus, I saw drops of water where tears normally appear. Were they there because I let the fox run free?”

As Jesse left, Jonathan came forward, causing a stir among the audience because of a large hunting spotlight in his right hand and the toy deer rifle swinging by a wide leather strap across his left shoulder. 

He said, “I am a follower of the star in the eastern sky.  I arrived fifth at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love.  

“With my eyes still downcast in prayer, I heard a noise which made me shine my bright spotlight toward Joseph. I was in shock when I found a twelve-point buck standing dumbly beside Joseph, blinded by the headlight, a doe lying by his side.”

As Jesse shined the bright spotlight’s beam to the normally vacant space beside Joseph, Jesse appeared. Laughter broke out among the audience as they saw he was resting a board mounted set of whitetail deer antlers atop his head. Lounging on the ground at his feet was Eva with a deer hide slung across her back.

When the laughter died down, Jonathan continued, “And although I knew I could run quickly and retrieve Opa’s deer rifle, and I wanted, oh so wanted, the trophy antlers of that magnificent buck to put on my man cave wall, I remembered a Bible verse that had me frozen in my tracks.

This time laughter erupted from the other three actors standing offstage. Jonathan made a wry face and then came clean, “Actually, I heard Dolly say loudly behind me as I continued to shine the spotlight into the buck’s eyes, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36

“So instead of shooting him,” at these words Jonathan put on a very sad face, “I backed away from the nativity and removed the bright light from the deer’s eyes.  And as he and his doe raced away,”(Jesse and Eva raced off stage), “I made my way back beside Baby Jesus lying in his manger.  Gazing once again into His face, I was surprised to find water drops where teardrops should appear. Were they there because I did not take up my gun?”

Jonathan walked offstage and Dolly took his place. In her arms were a warm quilt and a flashlight. She said, “I am a follower of the star in the eastern sky.  I arrived sixth at the barn and found a newborn baby lying in the manger. I knew him to be our Savior, Jesus, and bowed my head in worship, regretting that I had no eloquent words prepared to tell Him of my love.  

“At amen, and since my fellow worshipers had encountered creatures from our Texas’ woods in their visits, I looked carefully into the dark corners of the barn with my light. My beam found not an animal, but a homeless man lying in some scattered hay.  He had his face turned from the light and appeared to be asleep.” Turning her light she placed the beam on one of the boys wrapped in a tattered coat lying on the floor of the nativity.

“Greatly startled, I turned to go home with the intention of calling the Sheriff, thinking that this stranger shouldn’t tarry inside such a place as this.  Stopping in route when inside my head I heard the voice of Mrs. Earp, my Sunday school teacher, repeating one of the first scriptures we children ever memorized; Matthew 22:39  Love your neighbor as yourself.  The scripture made me ask-- wasn’t this weary traveler my neighbor in Christ? Would I wish to spend a night in jail for merely seeking a warm place to sleep?”

I went back to the farmhouse where we children gathered food, warm drink and a quilt.  The boys brought it back to the nativity and placed it inside the front doors before they slid the doors shut for the night.  The next morning the food was gone, and the empty thermos rested on the neatly folded quilt.

I found no tears in the eyes of Baby Jesus, but tucked under the thermos atop the quilt was a long white feather, as if from a heaven-sent dove. Was it there because we children had treated the trespasser the same way we would have if he’d been a guest in our grandmother’s home?”

Quietly, Dolly walked off stage.

The stage was empty for a full minute. Then the six actors walked onto it, each carrying the prop they used in the play.

Timmy said, “We believe we have each portrayed a Christlike spirit, although it might only happen in Texas. Mine was to give to the needy. I did so by not sweeping.” He made a couple of swipes with his broom, then tucked it under his arm.

Olivia said, “To be patient and kind. I did so by not swatting.” She swatted at the air for a second or two, then held the flyswatter still.

Eva said, “To think only of others. By not batting.” Assuming a batter’s staunch, she prepared to strike at a ball, but stopped mid swing and put the bat down by her side.

Jesse said, “To act as Jesus would if He walked among us. By not capturing.” Opening his coat wide, he acted as if he would throw it over something on the ground. Instead, he folded the coat over his arm.

Jonathan said, “To show mercy, by not shooting.” Taking careful aim at something off stage, Jonathan let his finger hover over the trigger. Then he stopped and slung the gun back over his shoulder.

Dolly said, “To refuse to harm our fellow man. By not tattling.” Opening and closing her mouth, and raising her finger as if deep in gossip, she stopped and stood quietly.

Together the six children ended by bowing and saying: “Merry Christmas! We hope you and our Grandmother are pleased with our new version of the Christmas play.”

Their grandmother LaFreda clapped loudly along with the rest of the crowd. If one of the children’s flashlight beams had hovered upon her smiling face, they would have seen water where teardrops normally appear.