A Personal Journey Collecting Global Nativity Scenes to Share the True Meaning of Christmas and Invite Others to Worship the King
The Christmas season is such a special time for every Christian. As a young girl, I marveled at the concept of the whole world knowing it is Christmas Day, a day set apart to celebrate the Greatest Gift ever given to humanity. Decades later, as I matured and saw more of the world and its rapidly changing post-Christian culture, I realized not everyone in this world acknowledges the day as miraculous. But as for me and my house … we will celebrate the season as the gift that it is, and was, and always will be.
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Years ago, to order my heart during a very hectic month, I started a collection of nativity scenes. It first began at the age of 19 when I made my first ceramic figurines while my dad crafted a primitive shelter for them. My mother added to my collection, gifting me an Italian Fontanini set, piece by piece, for birthdays and Christmases in the years that followed. I began to see my collection growing and loved the idea of tangibly seeing the Gospel message shared across the globe through these sometimes-tiny nativities. While engaging in overseas travel, the one souvenir that is a “must-have” is that specific country’s iteration of the nativity scene. From Costa Rica to Germany, from Bethlehem to Kenya, I have entered the doors of small shops in search of a nativity representative of the country I am visiting. There are times during my travels, however, that the scenes are elusive, unavailable, unimportant. I pray for those people in those countries that the light of the Lord makes its way to their souls.
So why is the biblical nativity account, as mentioned in the New Testament and prophesied in the Old Testament, so important, so symbolic, so everlasting?
Nativity is defined as the process or circumstances of being born; the birth of Jesus. Nativity is from the Latin word nativus, which means “arisen by birth.”
The Holman Bible Dictionary explains, “His conception was virginal. Angels announced His advent. His actual birth occurred in a place and time that was no place and time for a baby to be born. Angels announced. Shepherds heard, came, and wondered. Magi came later to bring gifts.”
The Messiah, the King of Kings, the Savior of us all, was born to a young, unmarried teenage girl of a faith-filled Jewish family. Her pregnancy was viewed as a scandal by some and as an incredible act of faith by others. Jesus’ mother, Mary, was not the typical mother of a king.
The birthplace of Jesus, a cave in the tiny town of Bethlehem, underscores the contrast between His purpose and His divinity. Jesus’ humble birthplace, beneath the fields where shepherds abided, seems an unlikely place for a King to come into this world. Gone are the gilded thrones and royal linens, but rather a wooden manger with cloth wrapping the Divine Child.
The kings from the East came later, expecting to find the prophesied Emmanuel in a palatial environment. Rather, the shepherds of the field were Jesus’ first visitors. In first-century Palestine, shepherds were rarely welcomed as house guests. They were not even allowed to worship in the temple, due to their disgusting smell from working with the sheep all day. Yet, these were the first visitors to the King of Kings.
Jesus, our Savior, God’s chosen Son … born of a virgin in a humble cave whose bassinet was an animal’s feed trough with stinking shepherds as the first to offer congratulations. What a picture, one that was beautifully orchestrated by our God who wanted to share His love with the entire world, despite location or station in life. He wants all of us to know His love and His promise of eternal life.
And this is why I display my forty-plus Nativity scenes each Christmas.
My prayer is that whoever enters the threshold of our home will know the story of Christmas and that they, too, are invited to worship the King of Kings and share in His greatest gift of all, eternal life. He truly is Good News.
