The Very Best Part of Christmas

The Rock Star's preschool Christmas performance is tonight. At five o'clock. I found out two weeks ago. Our dress rehearsal for The Nativity is tonight. At six o'clock. I scheduled that back in September. We're all taking him to his show, I'm leaving at 5:30, and The Husband will bring him to the church--hopefully as close to 6:00 as humanly possible.

This morning was their dress rehearsal and if you think for one second that I didn't park myself in front of the whole thing so that I could see it from start to finish you'd be wrong. The only real difference was the fact that they were in jeans and t-shirts instead of dress clothes. Well, that and the fact that I didn't have to crane my neck to see around some tall guy in front of me.

There just so happens to be a song about how the best part of Christmas is the gifts we give away.

So there I was, sitting in the back, wrangling the toddler, trying to blend into the seats so that I didn't disrupt their dress rehearsal. When they reached the part of the song about giving gifts being the best part of Christmas, my son's little face fell. His eyes immediately locked in on mine. He somberly shook his head from side to side. He whispered, in what I think he thought was an aside that only I could hear, "No. God is!"

The class sang on.

He became more and more frustrated, clearly angry that he was singing a song that went so against his theology. He got louder. "No! GOD IS!"

I placed my pointer finger over my lips, then moved it and mouthed, "We'll talk about it later."

"BUT GOD IS THE BEST PART OF CHRISTMAS!"

Later, as we drove home, I explained that while Jesus--come from heaven to dwell among us and save us from our sin--is most certainly the best part of Christmas, it was alright for him to sing the song with his class.

He sighed. "Okay. But I hope they all know that Christmas is really about Jesus!"

And I hope you know how much you melt my heart and how proud I am of your four-year-old theology.