The Three Wise Men

I didn't get any pictures this time. I was telling the story & was just too wired from the busy weekend. Oh well, we had a good time anyway. We introduced our three wisemen ("wisepersons"), all wearing neckties to illustrate their status. They were looking at the stars stuck to the ceiling fan through a telescope (two telescoping paper towel rolls). Then suddenly this very large star appeared, held up on a stick by one of the girls. Interesting, most stars travelled in some kind of orbital pattern (ceiling fan turned on slow speed), but this new one was going in a straight line. They decide to follow it, so each takes a tote bag containing a towel and a wrapped gift, and set off following the star.

Eventually it leads them to King Herod's palace. They figure this must be because the star signifies a newborn king, so they get in to see Herod and ask, where's the new baby king? We've been following the star that told us he had been born. Oh-oh, Herod doesn't like this news. He has no new baby son, but he remembers some prophecy from somewhere about a star arising from Jacob that will rule. (we had someone read parts of Numbers 24:17-19 from a prepared scroll) But HE wants to keep ruling! So he goes and finds some Bible experts and asks them where this ruler is supposed to be born. They look up and read Micah 5:2—answer: Bethlehem.

So Herod goes back and says, okay, no new baby here, but you can expect to find him in Bethlehem. When you do, come back and tell me where exactly, so I can go pay my respects too. They agree & leave, after which Herod gloats, ha, I can kill this baby and then I can be the only king again!

The star now leads them to one of the side rooms. They knock and out comes one of the girls holding a baby doll. They ask when it was born & she answers, "December 25^th," so they know it must be the right baby. They give mother & baby the gifts from their bags, and they all get a chance to cuddle the baby a little. Then they leave. They know they're supposed to go back to Herod's palace, but they're too tired from all their traveling & it's late, so they pull the towels from their bags and go to sleep on the floor. But during the night an angel appears and tells them not to go back to the palace. So when they get up they go into the other bedroom and re-enter the living room through the back balcony.

Our game was another relay race, based on the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Various small wooden blocks had been labeled with one of these gift names, & each team had enough so that each kid could find & bring a set of three to "Mary & baby" sitting at the front of the room. Somehow, it should have been more fun than it was. I think it would have been better if there had been more blocks to have to paw through, with some having totally irrelevant labels. I was too cheap, I guess. I was able to find a box of 32 small blocks (actually Chinese Chess pieces) for a very cheap price and said, good, I don't have to spend a lot. I could have bought two boxes and it still would have been cheap.

The wisemen brought their gifts in "treasure boxes" but we usually receive our Christmas gifts in stockings, so we made stockings for our craft. The patterns were cut out of plastic report covers which were handily red in back & clear in front. They added a white top made from a folded card with cotton balls stuck to it, punched holes around the edges, then sewed the whole thing together with green yarn, leaving enough for a hanger at the top. The hole punches were not quite heavy-duty enough (even though I'd bought bigger ones—in fact, the small ones that had been a disaster with the crossing-of-the-red-sea craft (May 28) did a better job than the big clunkers—sigh), so there was some frustration. But all was forgiven when I got them all filled with candy during the free time!

We had a potluck scheduled, with food to be delivered at 12:00. They had trouble finding the place and didn't arrive until 12:45. Mrs. Ng had brought some scrumptious homemade dumplings so we polished those off while we waited. Finally the food came—and along with it, a boy & his mom who have been frequently late in the past, but NEVER this late. I mean, if the food had come on time, we would have been mostly done eating it by the time they showed up! How did they KNOW??