Midnight Mass
(With apologies to the Christians for the irreverance)
“… and they were sore afraid…”
The lesson washed over Melanie like a familiar blanket.
“Bet they were,” muttered Mrs Mwanna next to her. “You’d be sore if you were seated on the ground and you’d be afraid if you were told not to let anything happen to Daddy’s sheep and then a massive heavenly host dropped in uninvited.”
Some people turned and glared, but Mrs Mwanna just glared right back.
“You know, my dear, the angels aren’t described as having shiny wings in your Bible. That’s just to make them look pretty in paintings. Lipstick on a pig, basically.”
Extroduction
First, I want to say Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it and Happy It’s Quiet Uptown Day to everyone else.
Rochelle’s photo has lots to look at, but my eye went instantly to the colourful pigs flying through the foreground. I was reminded of last year’s December story which I could easily have repeated to be honest, but I decided to lean into the original meaning of Christmas and revisit my old favourite characters – Melanie and her delightful neighbour Ms Mwanna. Ms M probably shouldn’t be in church at all, let alone on the Holy Night, but I’m assuming she volunteered to take Mel because Dad was visiting Mum in the hospital or similar.
The kids have been telling me recently about the ‘meme’ of “Biblically accurate angels” – look it up on your favourite search engine if you’re interested. Let’s just say there’s a lot more reason to be sore afraid of those things than primary school children in pillow case dresses and tinsel halos.
elmowrites 