In Order of Importance

Rex (age 9) was working with the figures from the Nativity and the Adoration of the Shepherds. He asked me to look at their arrangement: the Child Jesus was towards the front of the table, on the green felt representing the fields where the shepherds lived. The other figures were also on the green felt, in rows behind Jesus: first, Mary and Joseph; then, the angel and two shepherds; in the back row, the sheep and another shepherd. Rex said they were lined up in order of importance.
The catechist remarked, “It looks as though they are following him.” Rex lifted up the Christ Child to indicate that he could not yet move on his own and remarked, “He would be floating.” [The catechist was struck by this image of the nations following a child who was completely unable to move himself.] The catechist recalled, “It reminds me of the sheep following the Good Shepherd. Do you think this Child is the same Good Shepherd?” Rex said, “Yes.”
After a period of silence he said, “I have always wondered if God, who had no hands or arms or legs but who made the whole world, knew what he would look like when he came to earth.”