My grandparents had two nativity "sets" that I remember playing with as a child. One was a set of small figurines, copper-colored and (in my opinion many years ago) fragile and very beautiful. The other was a wooden puzzle - all the characters fit back into the stable-shaped tray but only if you could arrange them just so.
This year, I pulled out our two nativity sets and did something I've never done before...I asked our son Dominic (6 years) to set them both up. He did so enthusiastically and willingly. And looking at his setup, to my shame, the first thing I did was reach out my hand to fix them.
You see what's wrong with them, right? In a nativity scene, you're supposed to be able to see the faces and all their intricate little details. You should see the shepherd's grubby face and the dirty little lamb. You should see what gifts the magi have brought to the baby King. And instead, all the characters in Dominic's nativity setup have their faces turned AWAY from the audience and toward...oh.
Just as I grabbed the first figurine and started to flip him around to face the "correct" direction, I got it. I was milliseconds away from correcting Dominic by turning the figures' faces AWAY from Jesus. Wow. I have a lot to learn, and my 6-year-old probably taught me the most important lesson. In this holiday season, in this crazy season that covid and politicians and social media have produced, in this horrible season when families and churches and neighbors are torn apart, please take a moment and consider a 6-year-old's nativity. For a moment, let's turn our eyes away from the audience, from each other, from the world and all its troubles. Let's consider this story, of a creator God who came to be born as one of His created, who came to show us a new way to be human, the right way to love God and neighbor and self and creation, who established a new covenant between us and God by taking the brokenness of creation and created into His body and blood. Let's just, for a moment, consider what this world could be like, if we followed His example of love.
Merry Christmas. Peace and love be with you all.
