I can’t believe I was so naive. The idea of being part of a live nativity scene in the Community Carols ‘event’ seemed reasonable enough.

I was quite unaware that the night had corporate sponsorship and that it was being televised by a local network. It had to rate. The viewers needed to be entertained. And entertained they were.

The host for the evening - a well known TV personality - opened the Carols with the line, “O my god, don’t you all look so beautiful?”.  Not a good sign, blasphemy at a Carols evening. And then the band struck up. They were very good. That said, I’ve never considered, “It’s Raining Men, Halleluliah” to be a true Christmas Carol. I was clearly in the minority. Thousands were cheerily singing along. Community spirit had kicked in (ably assisted by the free flowing ‘chardy’).

So there we were with this live nativity scene. It was pretty basic, to be honest. We had an angel, a Mary, a Joseph and a very angry little baby as Jesus (poor kid was only in the manger for a moment -  it was his feed time….still, the plastic stunt double looked convincing enough).  Oh, we were offering free face painting too. Look, if the band can do Geri Halliwell songs at Christmas, we can do face painting!

Call me naive (again,)  but I was amazed at the number of people who wanted to get inside the nativity scene. I kid you not. It started with a group of Japanese tourists who wanted to be photographed between Mary and Joseph. “And might we hold the baby, please?”. It was on for young and old after that. We even had a small line at one stage.

I found the conversations instructive.  Not only were kids asking why their local doctor was dressed up like an angel [thanks Ross, you really did look very fetching], they were, in the main, uninformed when it came to the details of the incarnation. “It’s the legend of Christmas” one parent thoughtfully explained. “And here’s Jesus”, said her son, as he patted Joseph on the shoulder.

At that point we really did have something to say. Every child and parent who came by our nativity scene was given a beautifully designed and carefully written explanation as to why Jesus was born. Inside the brochure was an invitation to attend a local service over the Christmas period. We gave dozens away.

Now I’d like to say that having read our info we were then able to lead large numbers to Christ. And I’m not saying that that couldn’t happen. Our problem was that that pesky Santa turned up - on a police launch (as one does). The kids scattered, the sun set and our work was done.

I won’t be so naive next year. That’s right, I’ll be the one dressing up as Joseph. I mean where else do you get to have your photo taken with group of smiling strangers and share the gospel? Bring it on!

Merry Christmas!