It’s amazing how many of these Nativity scenes I can pass during this time of year and rarely, if ever, think much about it. It’s sad, but in many ways I’m afraid we’ve put the nativity scene in the same category as Santa, Frosty and the little elves reducing it to a mere symbol of the holiday season.
However the “Nativity” should be a reminder that Christmas is thick with unexpected, transcendent, hope.
The Nativity scene should be a reminder that Christmas is God telling His people, “You can’t predict me! I’ll show up at anytime, anywhere, in the midst of the most unlikely circumstances and through the most unlikely people.”
Frederick Buechner said
“Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of Him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of man… And, this means that we are not safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break into and recreate the human heart because it is where he seems most helpless that he is most strong and just where we least expect Him that he comes most fully.”
Don’t allow the frequency of the portrayal of this event to rob you of the wonder and awe it represents. What if over the next four weeks every time you see a nativity set up you simply….
PAUSE.
Seriously how different would this Christmas be if you pause every time you see a nativity and remember you worship a God that is unpredictable. A God who can and will stoop to the most ludicrous depths to breath hope into your life.
Will you pause?
I’ve been driving the people in my house and office crazy with my constant playing and singing of Christmas music. I just can’t get enough of it. So in the spirit of Christmas I thought I would share with you my top 5 Christmas songs of all time.
