Christmas Plays and Christmas Carols

I usually love this time of year - as long as I am organised that is. The two things I love the most are carols and going along to a Christmas play or two.

The traditional carol singing just gets me into a mellow and relaxed mood and one of our local churches puts on a different play each year combined with their church choir singing some up-to-date Christmas songs. 

It all helps me to remember the commitment that Jesus made to become a human being, with all of our fleshly weaknesses. Through this experience, Jesus came to know our hardships, and our physical and emotional challenges. 

I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for Him to go through being a baby, a toddler and a child. Then he experienced all those hormonal changes in adolescence and the crankiness and conflicting emotions. Sure, as God, Jesus was able to withstand the difficult times and not fail, but the fact that He experienced them gave Him a unique insight into what it is to be a human being.... Now THAT takes a commitment!

I recall a joke I heard some years back about a mouse and an elephant that were swimming in a creek. The mouse swam ashore and began to dry himself when he suddenly called out to the elephant, "Come closer!"

The elephant stopped splashing about and swam in a little closer to the shore.

The mouse once again called out, "Come closer!"

Taking a few steps, the elephant came closer until the water was down past his shoulders.

"Come closer!" shouted the mouse.

Soon the elephant stepped up until he was knee-deep in the water, at which point the mouse said, "I thought so! You borrowed my spare pair of swimming trunks didn't you?"

In a way, the story of Christmas is a little like this joke. The great and powerful God of heaven, God's Word Jesus, somehow was able to squash his greatness into the small, frail body of a human man. While an elephant fitting into a pair of mouse shorts may seem incredible, how much more so that Jesus, crammed all of His glory, all of His Love, compassion, goodness and mercy into such a small vessel as a human body...Remarkable!