3. It reminds you of the reason for the season.
Slide 3/3
The self-righteous members of Grace Church decide to exclude the Hardmans from the contest, but the Hardmans' classmates believe they are too “dirty” and unruly to participate. Claim it's not appropriate.
But Grace remains determined to keep the herdsmen here.
After all, she says, if the main message of the contest is the love of Jesus, why exclude anyone?
“The point of this story is that Jesus was born for pastoralists just as he was born for us,” she tells her daughter.
The pastoralists live just a few blocks from the church. Yet they know little about the story of Christ. Hearing the Nativity story for the first time, they ask questions that only children would have. “Who are the shepherds?” Where do they come from? What is a ryokan? What is a manger? The children listen carefully to every word as Grace reads the Bible account. So much so that Imogene bites the other children. “Shut up! That's what I want to hear.”
In the final scene of the film, we see the pastoralists come to understand the Christmas story in their own wonderfully unique way.
The best Christmas pageant ever It inspires us to reach out to the less fortunate, to welcome the unfamiliar, and to always lead with love. It also shows us what the church should and should not be. Filled with lessons about hope, grace, transformation, and salvation, this story resonates beyond the Christmas season.
Rated PG for thematic content and brief exposure to underage smoking. Crude Language: OMG (2), both uttered by Imogene.
entertainment rating:5 out of 5 stars.
Family friendly rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Photo credit: ©Allen Fraser/lions gate
