Story script with pictures to prompt the responses - Fosse Deanery

If you told me you had a great idea, and I said, “Oh yes And what’s Plan B” what
would I mean
Sometimes we make plans knowing that they may not work. We say that we hope
that Plan A will work, but if it doesn’t then we’ll try Plan B. So if I ask you,
“What’s Plan B” then I’m saying that I don’t think your idea will work - we’ll need
to try something else.
I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a BIG story: the story of everything, and I need
your help to tell it. Every time I hold up the sign, the girls/women should call
out, “What’s Plan B” and every time I hold up the sign, the boys/men should
call out, “There’s no Plan B!”
[You might like to get them to practise at this point.]
In the beginning, when God made people, he had a plan. He thought, “I love
people so much that I’m going to give them free will. I’m not going to force them
to be good. I’m going to let them choose between right and wrong.”
Every person made by God has sometimes made bad choices. People hurt each
other and upset each other, and damage the world, because of our bad and selfish
choices. But God had a plan. There were a few people who were really good at
listening to God, and through them he taught humans about himself and about the
rules that he wanted them to follow. He wanted to help people to choose to love
him and love each other. But people aren’t very good at following rules, and they
carried on making bad choices.
But God carried on with his plan. He thought, “I’ll go to earth myself. I’ll choose a
special couple to be my Mum and Dad, and I’ll be their baby.”
So God chose a young woman called Mary to be his mother. She wasn’t very old -
probably just a teenager - and she wasn’t married yet. She was engaged to be
married to a man called Joseph, who was a carpenter. Mary and Joseph lived in a
tiny little country that was ruled by the Romans. Life there could be difficult and
dangerous. “Just right for this special baby,” thought God.

God sent his angel, Gabriel, to tell Mary and Joseph about the special baby that
Mary would have from God. Now, do you remember that God had been teaching
people about himself One of the things he’d told them was that he would send a
special person to save them, and that this person would be born in Bethlehem.
Joseph and Mary lived a long way from Bethlehem, but God had a plan to get them
there. At just the time when his baby was due to be born, the Romans wanted to
count everyone who lived in Mary and Joseph’s country, so everyone had to go
back to the town where their families came from, to be counted. Joseph’s family
came from Bethlehem, so back they went. They walked for three days, with Mary
heavily pregnant. And when they arrived, they found that everyone else whose
family came from Bethlehem had got there before them, so there was no room for
them to stay in any of the inns.
So God’s special baby was born in a stable. God himself had come to earth and was
lying there in a manger, wrapped in cloths. It was such amazing news that God
wanted to tell everyone about it. But who should he tell Important people, surely.
People who were clever and well-known. “I know,” thought God. “I’ll send my
angel to tell those shepherds in that field over there.”
The shepherds believed the angels. They hurried to the stable, where they
worshipped the baby. Later, some wise men realised that a baby king had been
born in the land where Mary and Joseph lived, and they came to look for him.
First, they went to Herod’s palace. Where else would you look for a king Herod
sent them off to Bethlehem, where they found the baby Jesus. They brought him
three presents. Each one had a special meaning, which helped people to
understand God’s plan for this baby. They brought gold, to show that the baby
would be a great king. They brought frankincense, to show that the baby would be
a great high priest. And they brought myrrh, to show that the baby must die a
terrible death. It was all part of God’s plan.

King Herod had asked the wise men to tell him where the new baby king was -
because he wanted to kill him! God told the wise men to sneak home without
telling Herod anything. But later, when the baby grew up, there were plenty of
other people who wanted to kill him. And eventually they got what they wanted.
God had come to earth, born as a baby called Jesus. He had taught everyone to
love God and love each other. And he had performed amazing miracles. But at the
end of his life here on earth, he died a horrible death on a cross.
Why did God bother coming to earth, if this was going to happen It was because
he loves us so much. Do you remember how he gave us free will - and how we keep
on making bad choices God loves us so much that he doesn’t want to punish us for
getting things wrong. The reason he was born, that first Christmas Day, was so that
he could die, that first Good Friday. He suffered and died to pay the price for all
the bad choices that we make. Because he’s done that, we don’t have to.
And then something even more amazing happened. Three days after he had died,
Jesus came back to life!
And he went back to heaven, leaving his followers to carry on his work. Followers
who were ordinary human beings, who kept on making bad choices, and needing to
say sorry to God, and trying again.
But Jesus didn’t leave us on our own. When he went back to heaven, God’s Holy
Spirit came to be with us: to remind us of everything Jesus had taught us, and to
help us to keep on trying to make the right choices.
So, you see, God didn’t need a Plan B. When he sent Jesus to be born that first
Christmas, it was the most important part of the best plan of all.