Donkeys, Angels & A Lotta Love

This time of year is often filled with crazy expectations that leave us disappointed or exhausted.

Expectations that come from way too many shiny TV commercials and holiday specials, and way too many ideas that we put on ourselves about how perfect things ought to turn out. I don’t know about you, but I have yet to accomplish this level of holiday bliss and, in fact, I’ve found that many of the best moments come out the messes I didn’t expect.

For years I ran the Christmas Pageant at our church. It was one of the highlights of this time of year for me and I cherished all of them and the beautiful children I got to share the Christmas story with.  How can you resist all of those little shepherds running around with their crooks (minus the frequent impromptu battle…as a mother of girls…little boys’ abilities to turn anything into an action-adventure sequence still astounds me)?  

Anyway, one year I got it in my head that we needed to throw a live donkey into the mix. We had dabbled with chickens over the years, so why not step it up this time? For months I searched for the right mule, but it turned out it wasn’t easy to find an available, well-priced donkey this time of year. So, I moved on to conjuring up other ways to spice up the pageant. Until, a few weeks before “the big show” I got a surprise text from a friend, “I found a donkey, I booked it, it’s my gift, it will be there at 9 am on that Sunday.” As a life long lover of donkeys (who knew), she had made it her mission to procure this elusive miracle for our pageant, and now we were all systems GO. I was shocked and excited.

On the morning of the pageant, the donkey arrived on time, ready for a quick run-through. A hush fell over the room as the children gazed in wonder at a donkey strolling down the aisle. I felt the magic of the moment and silently high-fived myself for a mission complete (It WORKED – we did it – CHRISTMAS MAGIC). HA! As the donkey approached the front of the church it suddenly stopped, the carpet it had been walking on switched to hardwood floor, and that was enough to spook it. It lost it! Literally. Poop. Everywhere. On the carpet. In the middle of the church.

I’ll let you take a moment to envision how this all went down….

We jumped into action, but it didn’t matter how many cleaning supplies we used, there was no way to battle back the smell that hung in the air. To say that it smelt like a barnyard would be an understatement. No amount of Lysol was going to mask this unexpected turn of events. With no time to do anything other than keep going, we forged forward as churchgoers rolled in with scents of the manger (I’m not being figurative here) greeting them.

This was not the moment I planned - it was a mess.

But it didn’t matter, those eager, shiny-faced angels were going to show up no matter what. No matter the mess, mid-sized Mary and Joseph would hold onto this year’s baby Jesus with a death grip to keep it from moving. It wasn’t that “the show must go on,” it was that life does.

Regardless of the mess, hope reigns, and miracles happen.  

The unexpected, both the good and bad, happens this time of year, just like it does the rest of the year. To think it will be perfect is to set ourselves up for disappointment. There is good news here though…God is there, either way. Whether things turn out to be a mess or not, God is with us and loves us through it. God shows up and creates goodness through all of it. The hope we long for, the miracles we want to experience, often come out of the messes. It may not look like you thought and you might not recognize it for years, but God is there regardless of if you are hanging out in a manger or a perfectly decorated home.

That’s the true miracle of this time of year. Nothing separates us from God’s love.

And so, I hope that when the unexpected happens you think of the donkey. Know that the angels still walked right down that aisle with their crooked halos, and when we tried again, the donkey did make it all around the church…accident-free. Lean into the moments that might not look like how you hoped or planned, but could very well be the thing that teaches you something invaluable or gives you great joy for years to come. Because I am here to tell you, few things make me laugh harder than thinking about the faces of the grown-ups in the church that day. And as for the children, I’m pretty sure THAT moment was the highlight of their pageant experience. It was unexpected, but joy-filled in the end, for all of us.