The story is an ancient one.
An angel appeared to Mary, and said, "Do not be afraid, Mary. You will conceive, and bear a son and name him Jesus."
This same story is told each Christmas.
At Damascus UMC, even Sugar the donkey joins in the telling, although Sugar will not move onto different colored ground. His friends join him, and the show goes on.
More than 50 youth enact the Nativity play, which has been going on at the church for generations.
Emma Baldridge helps the head angel, Ana Schobitz, don her wings.
In that region of Damascus there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord appears, bringing them “good tidings of great joy!”
They visit King Herod, who sends them to search out the child.
But instead of taking the child to Herod, the wise women kneel down and offer the baby gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And the story continues, as the people of Damascus and all the people in churches throughout the Baltimore-Washington, join with the angels in an unending song: “Joy to the Word, the Lord is Come.”