The Stable

The Nativity Scene   

     In an effort to help my focus, over the next few weeks I'd like to spend some time looking at  the nativity scene.  In fact, the nativity scene pictured has become my favorite Christmas decoration.  I'll admit it... it hasn't always been the focus of our house... the tree got up... the presents were under the tree... the wreaths hung on the windows and door... the parties.... the elves... all that..... and I would sometimes turn on my nativity scene... and sometimes not.   This year I'll be looking at this decoration a little differently.
      The Christmas before I got married, I saw this Department 56 Nativity Scene in Gatlinburg, and I begged Mama for it... I thought she'd say no because of cost... but somehow I ended up with it.  Little did I know then I'd love it even more some twenty two years later... it was there our first Christmas... when I wanted to be in Lincolnton... and I was in Greenville all alone until Christmas Eve when Mark got home.  It was there the year that KB was born... and we brought her home from the hospital on Christmas Eve... and it was there last year when I thought it would be a terrible Christmas without Daddy... but it was one of the best ever.   It has been here even when it wasn't really the focus... right up under my nose!
     For the past two years I have had the opportunity to teach a Christmas Bible study at the church.  I have to start earlier in the season preparing... so my heart has gotten into Christmas a little earlier this year again.... that and the fact that all my friends here are thinking I'm crazy that I'm just putting out pilgrims instead of being like them and putting out Christmas trees!
      The next few weeks leading up to Christmas I'll be writing about the characters, the structure, and parts of the Nativity scene.
      I'd like to start with the "stable".  Until recently, I used my childhood perception of the manger being in a barn... like Pa Ingalls had... I didn't know it was most likely a cave or a lower room of someone's residence.  There are many suggestions... just google them... but I do know that whatever Jesus was born in was STABLE... whether it looked like Pa Ingalls's barn, or a cave, or a basement area... it was stable.  I think the play on words there is not irony... it is truly stable.
     Using the word "stable"... I think it's important for me to have a stable foundation of what the true story of Christmas is... where I should focus... I can put up decorations, make homemade gifts, bake cookies for neighbors, and plan the best parties ever, but if I don't have a foundation... a stable home... none of those things will truly bring me joy.  I've been there... I've tried to buy happiness for my children, I've tried to buy happiness for myself... and I've tried to find happiness in friends, or trips, or Hallmark channel activities that make those actors smile... but I really don't need to look anywhere except the stable... where the manger was.
      I recently finished a Bible study where we discussed making our bodies vessels for Christ... is He welcome there... are we creating a healthy vessel... are we using our vessels to do what Christ is asking us to do... I picture the stable as the vessel that Christ was born in... the foundation... and I think about our house... are we doing everything we can to prepare a stable foundation for what life has to offer and bring?  I sure hope so... we aren't perfect, but I believe with all my heart if we focus on the real reason of Christmas we will be just fine.
    As I prepare for this Christmas season, I pray my heart focuses on the stability of a life with the foundation being Jesus Christ... I pray my heart focuses on the parts of the nativity scene and remembers that not one part of the Christmas Story was just added for excitement or enhancement... everything... down to the animals was there for a reason...
     Maybe Christmas is hard for you... maybe you act like you really love it, but you don't... maybe you openly dread every second of it... maybe you need to renew that Christmas spirit and renew a relationship with Jesus that you haven't worked on lately... maybe you need to work on the "stable"... your body, your heart, your mind to welcome Him inside... I hope you will be willing to open up and share with us during this season as we prepare to celebrate his birth.