Toddlers battle over baby Jesus during Nativity program at church
It was just supposed to be a peaceful Sunday church program to fundraise for a new playground at a small Tennessee church south of Nashville.
Then one of the moms suggested adding kids into the service at First Baptist White Pine. It would be a cute photo opportunity for the parents, everyone thought. They could act out the Nativity.
They had no idea it would become so much more
Video from that night shows a handful of young children on stage in a manger surrounding baby Jesus. They are singing "Away in a Manger."
Suddenly 2-year-old Teegan Benson, playing the role of the sheep, pulls the sheets off baby Jesus. The kids look around, startled.
She then proceeds to grab the baby doll, face the audience and dance, hips swaying back and forth with Jesus in her arms.
Immediately, you hear laughs erupt from the crowd. In fact, the laughs seem to encourage the little sheep. She begins swinging baby Jesus left to right.
"Teegan’s definitely spunky and knows what she wants," mom Tana Benson told All the Moms. "She was strutting her stuff!"
But Mary, 3-year-old Collia Weems, was NOT having it. Tana said 'Mary' is a fun and great kid who's a strict rule-follower. So it wasn't necessarily a surprise that she tried to grab the baby out of the sheep's arms to return to order.
The two youngsters proceeded to battle over the baby doll for the remainder of the song.
The laughs become uncontrollable at that point, and Tana said she even cried laughing because it was so funny.
Despite what appeared to be a tackle takedown at the end of the video, Tana said it was all good fun and there were "absolutely no bad feelings" between the parents afterward.
"Our girls love each other ... She (Collia) just knew what the rules were and wanted Teegan to follow," the sheep's mom said.
In the four days since the Dec. 10 video was posted, it has received 5.4 million views and more than 162,000 shares on Facebook.
Tana had originally made the video public to be able to share with other church friends.
After the first 1,000 views, she said she was stunned. "I don't even know 1,000 people!"
Though it was not her intention to go viral, Tana said "it's a blessing to be able to share some joy and positive things this time of year. I know the Lord can use this as a very positive thing for a lot of people."