One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the nativity scene, sometimes called a creche. You know the type: magi, shepherds, and animals, Mary and Joseph, all gathered around a precious baby known to us as the savior of the world. In our living room, each year, we put out the little stable of childhood memory along with a newer collection of plastic and plaster figures. I look at it often and it always makes me happy. Everywhere I see them, in fact, nativity scenes touch me with something of the wonder of the Christmas story.
I know, strictly speaking, these scenes are not entirely historical. Wooden barns or stables were not a feature of the first century Judean landscape. Where might Mary have given birth to Jesus? Perhaps it was in a cave or some rudimentary lean-to, but almost certainly not a wooden outbuilding with a peaked roof. For another, the magi from the east did not arrive at the same time as the shepherds. From Matthew’s mention, these gift-bearing pilgrims came and saw the the child when he and his family were already back living in a house. Need I mention that we have no idea how many of these magi there were? (Three was the number of the gifts, not necessarily of the visitors.)
Yet, even though I have studied the story of Jesus’ birth for many years, I still love the sight of a not-entirely-accurate nativity scene. In one sense, I take these as artistic portrayals which tell a story by condensing a sequence of events into a single scene. In another, I appreciate the picture of a spontaneous community, gathered in the providence of God, to cherish their blessed glimpse into the miracle of God’s redemption. What a magical thing it must have been to lay one’s eyes upon Jesus, and especially to have seen him as a little one!
We cannot travel back in time to become eye witnesses of the incarnation. Yet, by God’s grace, we are blessed with our own glimpses of the savior. I may not have seen him in Bethlehem, but I see and know him in a variety of ways, not least through the faithfulness and love of our church-community. In many acts of service, song, and seemingly random kindness, I notice the truth of Jesus’ famous saying, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also.”
I thank you for the ways you have blessed me and my family throughout the year and pray in these seasons of Advent and Christmas that the wonder of Christ is a source of light and blessing to you.
Will Haughton