Nativity by Nieva, age 5

Say a joyful Noise

Kieran, 5, made a prayer book during the atrium session to bring to bed with him every night.
p. 1 "This is Jesus.
My prayer is that Jesus is with us."
(Picture of Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem.)

p. 2 "This is Mary and Jesus.
Say a joyful noise."
(Picture of Mary and Jesus in the stable.)

p. 3 "This is Joseph.
Thank you for Jesus."
(no picture)

"Let every little heart prepare our room"

From Talia's mother:
We sang a lot at home and Talia loved singing Christmas carols the year she was three. 'Joy to the World" was such a favorite that for a couple weeks we added it to her bedtime lullabies. However she insisted on a word change as follows: instead of "Let every heart prepare him room", she (and we) would sing, "Let every little heart prepare our room." I thought perhaps it was sung this way in her atrium at school, but apparently not. It says a lot to me about her feeling at "home" and claiming space (collectively) at school..."little" hearts are important, and "our" room is special.

"The People who Walked in Darkness"

After giving a lesson on the Nativity, I asked the children, "What do you think the shepherds said when they saw Jesus?" Elijah, age 3, answered, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Natalie, age 3, said that if she was a shepherd who came to see Jesus, she would sing a song to Him.

It's suppose to be real

Tara, age eight, during a parish Christmas pageant rehearsal:"It's not supposed to be cute, it's supposed to be real."
She refused to participate but arranged to read her own prayer at the end of the pageant which included a reference to Jesus, the True Vine.
Tara is an outspoken child and loves to perform. To refuse to be in the pageant indicates very strong feelings.

We need to be grateful

A group of 9-12-year-0ld children were reflecting on the parable on the Workers in the Vineyard. Judith immediately said, "We need to be grateful for what we have, and not be jealous of others. Like the children in Haiti (referring to children in an orphanage we were collecting clothing and raising money for) are grateful for food and probably not jealous of us."
The context of discussing plans to help the Haitian children immediately before the lesson nudged Judith into a more immediate, or current, understanding of the parable.

A kindergarten aged child shared this reflection with her mother: "Mommy, have you ever had a thought like, if you combined all of the words in the world into a word or a sentence, it might say something like God's name?"  A few minutes later, she added that "or if you combined all of the pictures of things in the world -like the houses and the cars and the street and everything on the whole earth and even inside the earth - maybe you could look at it and it would be a picture of God or heaven."