Backstage at the Living Nativity

This month throughout the world thousands of people are working behind the scenes to produce religious productions in their local churches.  This work typically has long hours, usually with small budgets and tight deadlines and with no pay.  And I am proud to be a part of this group of workers.

At my church we are having two nights of the story of Jesus' birth called the Living Nativity.  There are five scenes depicting the foretelling of His birth, the rejection at the inn, the birth in a lowly stable, shepherds around a fire, and the wise men visiting the young Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Behind the scenes were carpenters, painters, sewers and technicians, to name a few.  I was one of the sewers.  For days before the production the team of sewers decided on the proper costumes, inventoried the costume closet, bought materials, cut patterns and sewed the many costumes that turned church members into Biblical characters.

I am not as seasoned as most of the other sewers.  That fact did not deter me from jumping in with both feet.  I cut patterns and got to run the serger. That machine both cuts the fabric and binds the seam with overlapping thread.  It has four needles working in unison, which was pretty intimidating in the beginning.  I was glad to learn a new technique and I got fairly good at it before the project ended.

After all the costumes were completed, they needed to be ironed.  We removed as many wrinkles as we could.  We used steam irons and even a steam machine which one of the sewer team owned.  She had been a professional seamstress during her working career and had a heavy duty steamer.

I was afraid of it, quite frankly, but with time learned to manage it.  I had burned my hand on a similar carpet cleaning machine.  I did not wish for a repeat of that burn.

The Steam Machine Was Challenging But Effective in Removing Wrinkles

We learned to use a glove and to pull the fabric slightly taut while holding the nozzle over the fabric.  Although we knew after the actors put the costumes on, they would get some wrinkles, we wanted each person to start out with a fresh pressed costume.  And they did!

The Living Nativity played out with no major glitches and everyone seemed to have an awesome experience.  Many people visited our church those evenings and today, seven people joined our church!

God is good!  (Side note:  I like to think that I, as a lowly sewer, had a small part in that being the outcome.  Any talent or skill you have can be used to glorify our Lord).