A heartwarming musical program presented December 2007 by students at Cornerstone Christian School, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, showed us once again the true meaning of Christmas.
“No Phibbin’ Mephibosheth,” a story of a lonely crippled boy with no place to go the night Jesus was born, was performed against a backdrop of the little town of Bethlehem with the children playing the roles of soldiers, shepherds and even sheep. Two soldiers guarded the gates to the city while the shepherds watched their sheep. Mary and Joseph were denied a room at the inn; the crippled boy was turned away too. Kind-hearted shepherds took him in and he heard the angels singing in the heavens. With the shepherds, he visited the baby in the manager and found acceptance.
Parents who watched, and the children who participated, all understood a little better the themes of Christmas as a result of this experience.
Katelyn Onstott, first-grader, as Mary, and Christopher Harlan, seventh-grader, as Joseph, prepare to greet the shepherds and a young crippled boy.
The whole cast sings the song of the angels at the pageant "No Phibbin' Mephibosheth!"
