I was in Target a few nights ago, picking up some last minute lab supplies for my students.
Having found my items, I wandered through the holiday supplies, just to see what was there.
As I paused to read a stocking stuffer label more closely, two women near my age conversed casually, and the topic caught my attention, so I pretended to read a while longer.
I drove home, a little entertained by the description I had overheard.
Nativity. How strange that something dearer and more Christmas to me than Santa and the tree, something I played with during childhood was so novel, so unfamiliar to these women of a similar age. At first, I pondered the contradiction. They knew the scene, but not the story. It seemed absurd. I wanted to know what she thought the display represented.
Then, as I drove home, another thought struck me.
That was how it went the first time.
There was a cute baby, cradled by a manger, possibly in something like a little barn. What an odd display. And like the women that I shamelessly eavesdropped upon, most of the world didn't register the significance of the absurd little event.
The shepherds that were guided to the manger did not know to call it "The Nativity" either. They too sought out a savior that they didn't understand.
How did they describe the view they came upon?
It is tempting for those of us who know the story by heart to scoff at the obvious ignorance of the unindoctrinated about the nativity... We want to get caught up in our Christmas snobbery.
but wasn't that the point of the nativity?
Like these women in the store, there was an unnatural draw to this baby in a humbled situation.
Wasn't Jesus born for those who did not yet know him? The unindoctrinated, too?
Jesus pursued those who knew little, leaving the well studied to their own snobbery.
We like to focus really hard on a baby in a manger at Christmas time. Too hard, at times. I think it is because it is safe. What an innocent, nonthreatening picture: a sleeping baby. We want to focus on shiny stars, and pretty carols, hushed tones, and lullabies, cuddling, and cuteness. What an oversimplification of Christian life.
And perhaps, the woman at the store unknowingly tapped on some wisdom: We need a nativity display that allows us to take the baby out of the manger. Jesus doesn't belong in the manger.
There were many at the time who would have been perfectly happy to let that baby lie in the manger permanently. Unfortunately for them, the baby moved, escaped, grew up, overturned tax tables, talked to prostitutes, defended women, fed multitudes, provided wine for the party, demanded people walk on water, crawled willingly to his death, and rose effortlessly to come back for us. To put it shortly, he didn't stay cute and containable for long. The baby that left the manger set the bar for living faithfully much higher than crooning praises and gazing adoringly upon his sweet, sleeping face.
And maybe, sometimes, that's why we like to leave the baby in the barn.
When it comes right down to it, Christ didn't come to fulfill the ideologies built up by the deeply religious, those who knew all the stories. He didn't come to fulfill the ideologies of those who revere the glittery, shiny, fragile version of the Nativity. Christ was born in a humble place, to fulfill the longing of the unstudied, the aching, the unclean-those who could only describe him as "That baby in the barn." Those who dearly wanted to be able to take the baby out of the manger and hold him close.
That baby could have been born in a palace, or temple, in the Most Holy of Holies within the temple, had God willed the story to go that way. If he had, multitudes would have been happier with the story of the birth of the savior. God likes to crush our preformed ideas of "how it should go" because our ideas cannot compare, or even remotely encompass the amazing story that happens when God shows us how the story really goes.
Christmas was just the beginning of another chapter of God's fantastic story...and in the beginning of any story, no one really knows what is going on besides the author. We need to remember that it is alright for people not to understand. Just like the first Christmas, there were lots of people who didn't understand what the the fuss was about. And it's important that we don't shut people out or shoot them down, just because they don't have the all the Sunday school answers. Thankfully, God doesn't do that to us! Interest starts with curiosity, and curiosity has to be rewarded.
I'm glad I had to make that one more stop that night.
There were 3 things I needed to take with me out Target that night:
1. The reminder that it's okay for us to allow Christmas to be humble. More than just okay, it's beautiful.
2. Christmas would be worthless if the baby never left the manger, just like Easter wouldn't matter with the savior never left the cross, and it's important to think of Christmas as the beginning, rather than the focal point.
3. File folders. Good thing I needed those, because I never had the first two items on my shopping list.
Having found my items, I wandered through the holiday supplies, just to see what was there.
As I paused to read a stocking stuffer label more closely, two women near my age conversed casually, and the topic caught my attention, so I pretended to read a while longer.
"You know those little holiday displays some people keep in their homes? Like, under the tree, or next to it? You know, the wooden ones. I think they are really cute. I was thinking I might want to get one this year..." Seeing her friend still wasn't following her topic yet, the woman went on, "They're, like, in a little barn, with an angel or a star over it."The women rounded to the next aisle, and I didn't feel like being creepy enough to find something to "read" on the next aisle, too. I needed to stop dawdling, anyway. I checked out.
I wanted to help, but then I would have to admit I had been listening.
"Well," The first woman continued, "I found one I like, it's really expensive, but I like it better because you can take the baby out of its cradle."
I drove home, a little entertained by the description I had overheard.
Nativity. How strange that something dearer and more Christmas to me than Santa and the tree, something I played with during childhood was so novel, so unfamiliar to these women of a similar age. At first, I pondered the contradiction. They knew the scene, but not the story. It seemed absurd. I wanted to know what she thought the display represented.
Then, as I drove home, another thought struck me.
That was how it went the first time.
There was a cute baby, cradled by a manger, possibly in something like a little barn. What an odd display. And like the women that I shamelessly eavesdropped upon, most of the world didn't register the significance of the absurd little event.
The shepherds that were guided to the manger did not know to call it "The Nativity" either. They too sought out a savior that they didn't understand.
How did they describe the view they came upon?
It is tempting for those of us who know the story by heart to scoff at the obvious ignorance of the unindoctrinated about the nativity... We want to get caught up in our Christmas snobbery.
but wasn't that the point of the nativity?
Like these women in the store, there was an unnatural draw to this baby in a humbled situation.
Wasn't Jesus born for those who did not yet know him? The unindoctrinated, too?
Jesus pursued those who knew little, leaving the well studied to their own snobbery.
We like to focus really hard on a baby in a manger at Christmas time. Too hard, at times. I think it is because it is safe. What an innocent, nonthreatening picture: a sleeping baby. We want to focus on shiny stars, and pretty carols, hushed tones, and lullabies, cuddling, and cuteness. What an oversimplification of Christian life.
And perhaps, the woman at the store unknowingly tapped on some wisdom: We need a nativity display that allows us to take the baby out of the manger. Jesus doesn't belong in the manger.
There were many at the time who would have been perfectly happy to let that baby lie in the manger permanently. Unfortunately for them, the baby moved, escaped, grew up, overturned tax tables, talked to prostitutes, defended women, fed multitudes, provided wine for the party, demanded people walk on water, crawled willingly to his death, and rose effortlessly to come back for us. To put it shortly, he didn't stay cute and containable for long. The baby that left the manger set the bar for living faithfully much higher than crooning praises and gazing adoringly upon his sweet, sleeping face.
And maybe, sometimes, that's why we like to leave the baby in the barn.
When it comes right down to it, Christ didn't come to fulfill the ideologies built up by the deeply religious, those who knew all the stories. He didn't come to fulfill the ideologies of those who revere the glittery, shiny, fragile version of the Nativity. Christ was born in a humble place, to fulfill the longing of the unstudied, the aching, the unclean-those who could only describe him as "That baby in the barn." Those who dearly wanted to be able to take the baby out of the manger and hold him close.
That baby could have been born in a palace, or temple, in the Most Holy of Holies within the temple, had God willed the story to go that way. If he had, multitudes would have been happier with the story of the birth of the savior. God likes to crush our preformed ideas of "how it should go" because our ideas cannot compare, or even remotely encompass the amazing story that happens when God shows us how the story really goes.
Christmas was just the beginning of another chapter of God's fantastic story...and in the beginning of any story, no one really knows what is going on besides the author. We need to remember that it is alright for people not to understand. Just like the first Christmas, there were lots of people who didn't understand what the the fuss was about. And it's important that we don't shut people out or shoot them down, just because they don't have the all the Sunday school answers. Thankfully, God doesn't do that to us! Interest starts with curiosity, and curiosity has to be rewarded.
I'm glad I had to make that one more stop that night.
There were 3 things I needed to take with me out Target that night:
1. The reminder that it's okay for us to allow Christmas to be humble. More than just okay, it's beautiful.
2. Christmas would be worthless if the baby never left the manger, just like Easter wouldn't matter with the savior never left the cross, and it's important to think of Christmas as the beginning, rather than the focal point.
3. File folders. Good thing I needed those, because I never had the first two items on my shopping list.
