Skateboards in the Angel Choir

(Easter or Palm Sunday, praising God with our songs)

by Deb Brammer

 

[Uses two angel puppets and one boy puppet. For angel puppets add wings, halos, and a white gown to people puppets.]

 

(Bo enters and “skateboards” recklessly back and forth across the puppet stage.  After a few passes he “crashes” and lies at one end of the stage.  Angela, the first angel, enters by flying onto the stage.)

 

Angela:  Not another skateboard crash!  Hey, Bo, could you slow down a little?  You’re wearing me out.

 

Bo:  Who are you?

 

Angela:  I’m the reason you’re still alive.  I’m your guardian angel. 

 

Bo:  But I thought people couldn’t see angels.

 

Angela:  They usually can’t.  You must have whacked your head pretty hard if you can see me now.

 

Bo: (standing up) I’ve heard of angels before, but what’s a guardian angel?

 

Angela:  Well, God asks some of his angels to look after His children to keep them safe.  I’m  the angel in charge of you and I must say, you keep me pretty busy. But that’s my job.  It’s my way of serving Jesus.

 

Bo:  So if you’re my guardian angel, does that mean you make sure I don’t get hurt?

 

Angela:  Something like that.

 

Bo:  Then where were you when I skinned my knee this morning?

 

Angela:  If I hadn’t been there you would have broken your leg. I try to keep you safe, but you have to cooperate, you know.  That’s your part of the job.

 

(Melody, the second angel, flies onto the stage.)

 

Melody:  Hey, Angela, I hear you got assigned to that wild kid who has all the accidents.  Looks like things aren’t going too well.

 

Angela:  It could have been worse.  If I hadn’t been here, someone would be calling 9-1-1 by now.

 

Bo:  Who are you?

 

Angela:  This is Melody.  Her job is singing in the angel choir.

 

Bo:  It must be cool to sing in the angel choir.

 

Melody:  I love my job.  It’s more exciting than anything you’ll ever do on earth.

 

Bo:  More exciting than a double back flip on a skateboard?

 

Melody:  Even more exciting than that.  It’s glorious!

 

Bo:  So what kind of songs do you sing?  Classical?  Contemporary?  Rock and roll?

 

Melody:  “Rock and roll?”  Is that like that double back flip you were talking about?

 

Angela:  Actually, Bo hits lots of rocks, and when he does he rolls, flips, or crashes.  But I think he wants to know what style of music you sing.

 

Melody:  We just sing praises to Jesus.  Here’s the song we sang the first Christmas. (sings) “Gloria in excelsis deo.”  (from “Angels We Have Heard on High”)

 

Bo:  What’s that about egg shells?  It sounds more like an Easter song to me.

 

Melody:  I didn’t say “egg shells,” silly.  I said, “excelsis.”  That means “in the highest.”  “Gloria in excelsis deo” means “glory to God in the highest.” 

 

Angela: (reverently) I remember that first Christmas night.  All of us angels could hardly believe that God the Son would leave heaven and become a little human baby.  The sky filled with angels.  The harmony was great.  The basses hit notes so low a piano couldn’t play them.  And the sopranos could have shattered crystal.

 

Bo:  If that’s your Christmas song, what do you sing at Easter?

 

Melody:  (sings) “Christ the Lord is risen today.  Alleluia.” (from “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”)

 

Bo:  First it’s “Gloria.”  Now it’s “Alleluia.”   Don’t you guys ever sing in English?

 

Melody:  “Alleluia” just means “praise the Lord.”

 

Bo:  I wish I could be an angel.  Singing songs like that must be great–even better than doing a double back flip.

 

Angela:  And a lot less dangerous.

 

Bo:  (skates back and forth) I’m pretty good on a skateboard, but that doesn’t help me serve Jesus.  (falls again and remains lying down) Whoops! Guess I’ll have to work on that trick some more. I wish I had an important job like you angels. I wish I could sing in the angel choir.

 

Melody:  You have to be an angel to sing in the angel choir.