Don’t Forget the Baby

The Christmas pageant was running late, and the auditorium was buzzing with last-minute instructions and nervous excitement. Robes far too big, wings crooked, shepherds restless. A teacher knelt beside them and said, “Remember, you’re telling the story of when God came to us.”

The music started, and the children made their way onto the stage. Just as the last shepherd hurried into place, one of the angels tripped on her hem. When Mary and Joseph finally reached the manger, a voice from the front row of shepherds broke the silence:

“We forgot the baby!”

The congregation laughed first, then grew quiet. Because in that single, unscripted moment, something true had been spoken aloud. We do forget. We forget the center of it all, lost in the busy glow of everything else. But Christmas keeps reminding us: God didn’t wait for the world to be ready or right. He came anyway—into our confusion, our noise, our need.

Love took on flesh.

In today’s Gospel Lesson, John…