My First Nativity

I have this feeling of everthing coming full circle.

This morning, I got out of bed like I usually do on Monday morning, my brain full of all the things I wanted to accomplish this week and determined to make a big dent in the list. Among many things not done last week -- mostly decorating for the Christmas season -- was the item: Set Up Nativity.

This morning, I got it set up. Part of the problem was logistics. I have a gas fireplace, painted white, the perfect setting -- but the gas nozzle or outlet or whatever you call it is smack in the middle of everything. How was I going to set up the Nativity set straddling it, or tucked behind it -- excuse me, but there was no gas outlet in the middle of the first Nativity, so it probably shouldn't be there now, either -- or sitting in front of it, sticking out into the room.
With some ingenuity and some small glass bowls the previous owner of my house left behind, I did it. Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Now, back to the full circle idea ... Mom bought this Nativity set for my first Christmas. I know, because she wrote the date on the box. I can remember a lot of Christmases, winding the music box -- it plays Silent Night -- and lying curled up under the branches of the Christmas tree, listening to the music box play. And now she officially passed the Nativity set on to me, for my first Christmas in my first "on my own" home.

I'm a little nervous about trying the music box. What if it doesn't work, after sitting in storage for years? What if I'm wrong and it plays something besides Silent Night?

As I unpacked the papier mache pieces, I had a lot of memories in my mind. And I thought about the current culture that seems so bound and determined to take Christ out of Christmas. (Someday, it will probably be against the law, not just politically incorrect, to call it Christmas, or wish someone Merry Christmas. We don't want to offend all the other cultures and religions that don't believe in Christ, after all. I want to know: Isn't anyone afraid of offending ME by blocking Christ from Christmas?) And all the "traditions" of Christmas that are either errors or borrowed from other cultures.

For instance: Jesus was NOT born in the winter, and definitely not on December 25. The ancient Church leaders basically figured everyone was used to celebrating solstice and other winter festivals at this time, why not "sanctify" the festival by slapping a Jesus label on it? Hmm, sounds like old-style political correctness, to me. Jesus was born in the spring. How do I know? The Bible says the shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks. No decent shepherd is going to pasture his sheep in snowy fields. Duh! And Caesar wouldn't send everyone in the world to their ancestral homes for the census in the winter. Talk about a logistical nightmare.

Another thing ... no one knows how many Wise Men there were. Why do we insist on three? Why do Nativity scenes depict the Magi at the manger with the newborn? They weren't there that night, because they came from a far country, led by the star -- it took them months, if not years. How do I know? Because the Bible says when Herod ordered the slaughter of the baby boys in Bethlehem, he ordered all boys under the age of 2, based on the timing the Magi gave him. And the Bible says they came to the house (not stable) where the child (not newborn) was with his mother, and presented gifts to him. So logic says Mary and Joseph and Jesus lived in Bethlehem for a while after he was born -- they set up housekeeping, essentially.

And yet, I admit, I put the Wise Men out with the Nativity set, despite knowing better. Why? Tradition. Because it's a set. Because of all the memories.

How many traditions do we keep that are meaningful, and how many are meaningless, yet we keep them anyway? How many traditions do we purge from our lives through political correctness pressure? How many will we hold to, no matter how we're mocked, maybe even persecuted, maybe even sued by people who are so adamant about pursuing their rights that they violate OUR rights?

So as long as I'm able, I'm going to celebrate CHRISTMAS, rather than the holidays. I'm going to celebrate one of the greatest moments in history, the birth of Christ, my Savior, even if He wasn't born in December.

What matters is that He was born.