This is the week when we focus our gaze outward, to the stars of the winter sky and the winter solstice, when the wheel turns once again towards the light.

We had a Children's Pageant at church today to mark the occasion, complete with children's choir and adult choir and the following "visitors" to honor this time:

Mercury (the god, the planet, not the car)
Maria Mitchell (first person to discover a new comet)
Buddha (Gautama's enlightenment occurred in December)
David (the symbolic meanings of the Star of David)
Artemis (goddess of the hunt, protector of animals)
Clyde Tombaugh (the discoverer of Pluto)
The Three Wise Men (played by three young girls)
Nostradamus (mathematician, chef and astrologer)
Santa Lucia (traditional Scandinavian festival of light)
Dr. Laurel Clark (an astronaut aboard the space shuttle Columbia)
Geminid Meteor Shower (visible in December)
Tycho Brahe and his Moose (astronomer; Sagittarius)
The Yule Cat (an Icelandic feline)
Freeman Dyson (physicist, born in December)
Gemini (actual twins, one of whom cares for the other with special needs)
and Jane Fonda (born in December; she's a star, isn't she?)

Not the traditional same old church pageant. We UUs are an iconoclastic bunch and we loved it, but some of the visitors (out of town friends and family of the children, mostly) were uncomprehending and even put off.

We should embrace the whole universe of learning. We say there's so much more to this time of the year than just the trek to Bethlehem to be counted in the census (for purposes of taxation) and the birth there of Jesus, who became a radical teacher and prophet.

His story will be honored during next week's service.