The First Nativity

I love nativity scenes. I do not own one that I adore yet, but I am saving my pennies and hope to buy one next year.

I love looking at Mary- looking at her baby. I love the protective stance Joseph holds over his son. The picture of perfect adoring love. The simplicity, yet elegance and complexity, of the new family.

But the more I have stared and contemplated this pretty scene this season, I realized something is missing.

The reality.

Can you imagine being a young girl of 15 or 16, escaped from the comforts of home with a full belly and a child you didn't expect? On a donkey.

Can you imagine giving birth in a foul, smelly barn and then being thankful you found a food trough to place your newborn son in? The good man she married, but didn't even know yet, delivered her son to an audience of livestock -- cows and sheep.

The hay is blood-stained. The air is musty. The dirty animals are noisy.

There are no knitted booties or helpful nurses. There isn't a bath or even a bed.

And there certainly aren't clean, pastel flowing garments....

But there is Peace.

There is Hope.

There is Worship.

There is a Savior.

And that is enough.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!


Food for the Soul:
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”- Matthew 1:20-21