A Perfect Nativity?
On Epiphany Sunday, our pastor brought some thoughts to mind that I would like to add my thoughts to and share with you. This post is a culmination of my thoughts and his thoughts.
All too often, especially in this day and age, during the Christmas season we want everything to look perfect and easy. Our houses are beautifully decorated, we offer guests plates of delicious Martha Stewart's best home baked cookies, and we spend a fortune on packaging gifts to give to our family and friends. A lot of time, effort, and stress goes into these things behind the scenes. Another things that is prominent during the Christmas season is the Nativity scenes. Now think a minute....have you ever seen a Nativity scene with a big pile of cow manure in it? Don't laugh! How about hay stuck together and smelling of urine? Have you ever seen the costumes of the wise men tattered and dirty? How about the costumes of Mary and Joseph? Have you ever seen any Nativity scene that was anything except pristine?
Let's look deeper into the journey that all those nativities represent...a journey that was anything but perfect and easy! The journey itself was long and arduous. They would have to cross over mountainous and rocky terrain and also cross over the harsh and desolate desert;a journey that by horses and camels took more than several months. And remember they were following the "Star of Bethlehem" so they had to travel at night which meant they were also in danger from bandits along their route. Consider this...they were rich and from the upper crust...from a more comfortable lifestyle. To take this journey, at night, over this varied terrain, with the possible dangers, over the several months with the varied climates...it had to be VERY hard and definitely out of their comfort zone. To a small group of wearisome travelers unaccustomed to such turbulent and varied conditions, it might have seemed as if they had traveled across the entire stretch of the world. After a journey of over a thousand miles into a foreign country, and putting their lives in great danger the Magi finally found their way to Mary, Joseph and their son Jesus.
Why am I bringing this to mind? Because it is good for us to look at the hard things that we have had to walk through to get where we are now. We don't always have to make life look perfect and easy. It is the hard times, the journeys, good and bad and hard that hopefully build our faith and strengthen our bond to our Father. It is in those dark, hard day in the desert when we realize that we are nothing...that we have no power...that without a relationship, a growing relationship with our Almighty we are headed nowhere. If we didn't have the hard journeys we would not have any way of knowing how sweet the simple quiet times are. The journeys also shower us with God's ever present mercies...they exhibit his faithfulness...they recommit his promises to us. His journeys help us to be sit and listen for his voice and help us to be still so we can feel his touch. Journeys aren't perfect and they aren't easy. And the Magi probably left on their journey with anxious but hopeful hearts to worship a king. We can meet each and every journey we have with a hopeful heart. We can worship our king of kings on our journeys knowing that each journey gives us something special...a closeness, a maturity, a greater love for a Father who will never leave us or forsake us. The Nativities are almost perfect but are they really?! Think on that a few minutes....
All too often, especially in this day and age, during the Christmas season we want everything to look perfect and easy. Our houses are beautifully decorated, we offer guests plates of delicious Martha Stewart's best home baked cookies, and we spend a fortune on packaging gifts to give to our family and friends. A lot of time, effort, and stress goes into these things behind the scenes. Another things that is prominent during the Christmas season is the Nativity scenes. Now think a minute....have you ever seen a Nativity scene with a big pile of cow manure in it? Don't laugh! How about hay stuck together and smelling of urine? Have you ever seen the costumes of the wise men tattered and dirty? How about the costumes of Mary and Joseph? Have you ever seen any Nativity scene that was anything except pristine?
Let's look deeper into the journey that all those nativities represent...a journey that was anything but perfect and easy! The journey itself was long and arduous. They would have to cross over mountainous and rocky terrain and also cross over the harsh and desolate desert;a journey that by horses and camels took more than several months. And remember they were following the "Star of Bethlehem" so they had to travel at night which meant they were also in danger from bandits along their route. Consider this...they were rich and from the upper crust...from a more comfortable lifestyle. To take this journey, at night, over this varied terrain, with the possible dangers, over the several months with the varied climates...it had to be VERY hard and definitely out of their comfort zone. To a small group of wearisome travelers unaccustomed to such turbulent and varied conditions, it might have seemed as if they had traveled across the entire stretch of the world. After a journey of over a thousand miles into a foreign country, and putting their lives in great danger the Magi finally found their way to Mary, Joseph and their son Jesus.
Why am I bringing this to mind? Because it is good for us to look at the hard things that we have had to walk through to get where we are now. We don't always have to make life look perfect and easy. It is the hard times, the journeys, good and bad and hard that hopefully build our faith and strengthen our bond to our Father. It is in those dark, hard day in the desert when we realize that we are nothing...that we have no power...that without a relationship, a growing relationship with our Almighty we are headed nowhere. If we didn't have the hard journeys we would not have any way of knowing how sweet the simple quiet times are. The journeys also shower us with God's ever present mercies...they exhibit his faithfulness...they recommit his promises to us. His journeys help us to be sit and listen for his voice and help us to be still so we can feel his touch. Journeys aren't perfect and they aren't easy. And the Magi probably left on their journey with anxious but hopeful hearts to worship a king. We can meet each and every journey we have with a hopeful heart. We can worship our king of kings on our journeys knowing that each journey gives us something special...a closeness, a maturity, a greater love for a Father who will never leave us or forsake us. The Nativities are almost perfect but are they really?! Think on that a few minutes....
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