A Nativity Scene

The holiday season brings baking, decorations, gift giving, games and all sorts of fun things.  There’s nothing like Christmas time! And recently I’ve been getting into the season by checking out Christmas lights. Grace and I went to Silver Dollar City and saw all the lights up at the park.  It was spectacular! But even with all those wonderful lights I was most impressed by a friend's decorations.  His were normal in every sense except that for every person who was on the scene the faces were of family members. It was so cool!  The elves at Santa's workshop, the kids riding in the ferris wheel (that was dope in itself), the town of Whoville, and even the Nativity scene.  All of the people were children, grandchildren, or friends from family.  

I asked what got my friend started in creating such a magical scene, and then adding the faces of his loved ones to their setup. He said it started out because he wanted a nativity scene.  He said he loved all the stuff with the lights and the Santa Clauses but he wanted people to know the reason for the season, Jesus.  The Nativity scene he initially saw was way too expensive so he and his wife decided to build their own.  And that's how it all started. 

As we sat there and gazed at his work with the scene, the faces, and the lights I couldn’t help but think about Jesus in the cradle.  How the God of the universe, the creator of all things, the sovereign lord of the universe would allow himself to be so vulnerable.  How this same God allowed himself to be so humiliated.  How this God of the universe allowed himself to be with us, Emanuel.  I thought about God who has cattle on a thousand hills (that means he’s super rich) would put himself in the position of the poor.  I mean he was laid in a trough where animals feed!   That was his first resting place! That doesn’t even hold a candle to the fact that the all powerful one put himself in a position where he couldn’t even raise his head. Now fast forward a few years and he was placed on a criminal’s cross.  The all powerful one could barely lift his head from the agony and pain of the nails in his hands and ultimately the weight of the world's sin. 

I see why my friend wanted the scene up.  That scene is a reminder of God’s overwhelming love for us.  It’s a testimony to the worth he sees in humanity.  It’s a marker to the sacrifice he made so that we might be friends with our enemy. It’s a picture of the cost that was paid so that we can be reconciled to God.

Let this scene remind you of the goodness of God and his overwhelming love he has.  Let that fuel your faith and trust in him so that you can be faithful because he is faithful.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. Ephesians 1:7-9