The play's the thing ... well, it's a thing anyway

It's done.

The Christmas play is completed. The music is selected. It just needs a little tweaking. The kids will be reading through the play on Sunday after church.

Why does that matter? Because I wrote the thing.

I've "directed" the church Christmas program the last three years or so, and during rehearsals for last year's program, I realized I could write something as good as what we were performing. Maybe better. Hey, I said maybe. I even had an idea.

I've always felt like the wise men get short shrift when it comes to the Christmas story. The angels and shepherds get top billing, and the wise men are the also-rans. So what about their story? That was all it took to kick off the story. Of course, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are in it; that's a given. A group of scribes balances the wise men, and Herod gets to be the villain he's always wanted to be.

The story percolated and swirled around in my brain for about six months before I started seriously putting pen to paper or whatever the cliche is in this day of electronics. I really did put pen to paper, though. I wanted to write the dialog (which is all a play is, you know) longhand so I could hear it develop in my mind's ear. The handwritten pages are complete with scribbled out words and lines, arrows and notes to indicate moving something to a new spot and abbreviations like mad.

Once it started, it really didn't take that long to finish. I revised it as I typed it, which saved a step. Pastor Jeremy and Nathan read over it to check for potential heresy. (They didn't find any.) One of the Sunday school classes read it aloud for me so I could hear it for real, not just the voices I heard in my head as I wrote. That was definitely nerve-wracking. I know, lots of people have read lots of things I've written. But those are non-fiction. They are stories that could be fact-checked.

This play, though based on a true story, is a work of fiction. The conversations between the characters are made up. It's all out of my imagination. It's more personal, you know. The Sunday school class was very gracious. They offered a couple suggestions, which I was happy to make. Now this Sunday the script will be handed out to the cast, and on Dec. 9, "From Star to Son" will debut. It won't be a long run - just one performance.

Ideally, it'll be published and other churches or Christian schools or anyone else, for that matter, will have the opportunity to present a lesser known part of the Christmas story. My prayer, no matter how many see it or perform it, is that the message of God's love and forgiveness will shine through, just like the star that led the wise men to the Son of God.