Matthew 1:23 (AMP) “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel”—which, when translated, means, “God with us.”

Is it ever the wrong time to watch a Christmas movie? Since 2020 I have started changing my home over to celebrate Christmas on November 1st. Why? The four weeks between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are just not time for me to enjoy all of it. Starting earlier, I do not have to do it all in one weekend. I get to take my time and enjoy every moment. There will be days in December that I get to enjoy baking Christmas cookies for my neighbors. Immanuel-God with us should be more than just four weeks. It should be every day, all year long.

Last night, I joined a friend and we watched The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I like a nostalgic Christmas for my home and this brought back all the feels of my childhood at Wesley Heights Elementary. My favorite teacher was my first grade teacher, Mrs. Richardson. I even looked her up and invited her to my wedding day, and she attended. She was the teacher that introduced me to the love for books. I would finish my school work early and get to go back and sit in the reading area. Of course I got to put the books away in my own special way, because the other kids just threw them on the shelves. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was one of her favorites to read to us.

It is about a small church in a small town putting on their annual Christmas play. All the children in the church participate in the story of Jesus in a manger. They even have the angel (only speaking part) telling the shepherds in the field that the Savior of the world has been born. There is this one special catch this year. To take a quote from Amazon.com: The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, swear, and smoke cigars. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

The Herdmans are led by the oldest sister, Imogene. She is the oldest of six with four brothers, Leroy, Ralph, Ollie and Claude. The youngest, Gladys, a girl, is the scariest of them all because she hits…hard. The Herdmans want to be in the play and they want the best parts. Why did they show up in the first place, because they heard there would be desserts, the best desserts. The narrator (a classmate of the Herdmans) her mother is directing the play, a sweet woman name Grace. Grace feels she does not quite measure up to the other church women. She volunteers to show them she can do more than buy store bought cookies. I feel so much like Grace sometimes. I do not like drawing attention to myself and would rather just stay in the background and help make others shine. However, when put to the task, I will give it my all.

The Herdmans are tough because that is all they know. We never know where their parents are. Imogene is the mother figure to the kids and she is just a kid herself. She takes because that is all she knows how to get things. They love the movies and the great adventures, this is their chance to be somebody else. Imogene takes her role seriously and has the rest of the Herdmans do research and learn as much as they can about their parts. They even get library cards. This is a group that have never heard the Christmas story before. Imagine hearing it for the first time and all of the questions that a child could think up. Imogene is playing Mary, Ralph is Joseph, Claude, Ollie and Leroy are the three wise men and Gladys is the angel of the Lord.

Every year the church does a food drive and delivers Christmas hams to families in need. Do you know what family is on that list every year? The Herdmans. Bob, the narrators father, takes his family with him to deliver the hams this year. Their first stop, the Herdmans. Imogene has to hold the ham up high to keep it from her feral siblings, exclaiming that they cannot have any until Christmas Day. A little glimpse into the real struggles these kids have.

The day for the play is approaching and the whole church is outraged that Grace has allowed the Herdmans to be in it, not only that, they have practically taken over the play. The church is watching Grace very closely on how she navigates these kids. Do you know what she does, she does not scold them, she shows them kindness and patience. Something these kids have never received before. She does not ignore them, she is attentive to every question they have.

The big day arrives and the Herdmans are going to back out. The town does not want them in their big Christmas Pageant anyways, they just get blamed for anything that goes wrong. So who shows up at their door on Christmas morning? Our narrator, Beth. She begs them to come so that her mom will not be put to shame for allowing the Herdmans to be in it in the first place. Her mom worked so hard to keep them in it. At the last minute they show and the event starts.

Imogene and Ralph walk out and they are not using the regular costumes the church provides, they made their own, because that is what Mary and Joseph would have really worn. They would not have looked perfect, they had been traveling a long way. Imogene, holding the doll Jesus, because there was not a family that would allow a Herdman to hold their actual baby for this pageant. Imogene pats the baby on the back, burping him. It takes a moment but the church in their stoicism are enjoying the baby doll being burped. Do you not think that Mary had to burp Jesus? Our angel appears and exclaims: “Hey! Unto you a child is born!” Gladys, who likens the angel to a super hero in her comics, waving her arms with such big gestures. Then come our wise men, carrying their Christmas ham. A gift so special that they wanted Jesus to have it.

2 Corinthians 9:11 (NIV) You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

These kids that had never heard the Christmas story before, yet realized just how special Jesus is. As Imogene sits there looking tenderly at the Jesus doll, a tear rolls down her cheek. The church is in awe and sings Silent Night together. The true meaning of everything right there in that small town, in that small church. Jesus, the Light of the World, God with us, brought us into a His family. It was the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. The Herdmans were a needed part of their community.

We should never look at the Christmas story as common. Every December 1st I choose to start reading a chapter a day in Luke. I will even find passages in the Old Testament that prophecy about Jesus, there are over 300 of them. I encourage my church to look for opportunities to bless people they will never meet. We have “You Were Seen” cards that we hand out with a little gift to strangers. On the card is a QR code that takes them to a website to tell them how special they are in Christ. We even set up a Christmas tree with opportunities to bless people in our community. Look past the story and get the meaning of Immanuel, God with us. It is never the wrong time.