Today culminates the Christmas season in our Church, so it is fitting that we spend our atrium session with a Christmas celebration. It is always lovely to be pulled back into the heart of the matter - that beautiful manger holding a wee baby. The children in all atria make a procession to adorn the prayer table. They carry the prayer cloth, the Bible, a candle, the nativity figures and sing Christmas carols - it is always quite festive. We proclaim the scripture passage - Luke 2:1-7 for the youngest children and Luke 2:1-20 for the rest - while setting up the nativity scene. This is such a familiar story, yet it always holds something new if we only take the time to listen. We wonder together at what it would have been like to be there - would we have recognized our Lord?
The older children spent some time in prayer and then gathered objects in the atrium that would symbolize their gift to the baby Jesus. There was a pencil because He helps us write our "blank page," a Sharpie, because He leaves a permanent mark on our lives, a candle, because He is the light, the globe, because we are to share His love with all. The children's sincerity and diligence in searching for the perfect item was a blessing for us as catechists. Again I am humbled by their theology.
In the peace of the Good Shepherd,
Beate
