Holy NightSample

Scene Changers

I found Baby Jesus in my Christmas stocking one morning...

Not the real One, of course, but the one that had been missing for a couple of days from my tabletop Fontanini nativity scene. I’m pretty sure the one who put it there was my then 4 ½- year-old granddaughter. I had been letting the grandchildren play with the characters all they wanted since the pieces were unbreakable and too big to swallow, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. That does mean, however, that the scene looked different every time I walked by it. I found the Holy Family abiding in the field with the shepherds. Once I found the angel lying in the manger with a rooster. A few times the Wise Men have been in a far off country – like under the couch or in a basket near the fireplace. Once Baby Jesus was actually in the manger but wrapped in a string of tiny stick-on valentines.

It was an adventure.

But certainly no more of one than the real Mary and Joseph happen upon right before their wedding. She’s pregnant but not by her betrothed. An angel visits them both telling them not to worry – that this is all God’s doing. And the Caesar forces them to travel 80+ miles to pay a tax right around her due date. And Mary goes into labor while she and Joseph are in temporary housing, which happens to be a stable. And then…well, you know the rest, but here’s the point:

God has a plan for each of us, and it’s probably different from what we would have chosen for ourselves. He can move the pieces of the scene around however He wants. It’s His call, His work, His way. We can choose to accept it and follow it…or not. And it’s like with the nativity scene characters; we may have to search for each part of God’s plan for us one piece at a time until it all fits, until it makes sense.

One of my favorite Christmas carols is, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

Hark! The herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born king,
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark! The herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born king!"

The fourth line of the lyric…God and sinners reconciled…speaks of this event, the birth of Christ, but more about His purpose for coming to earth—to change everything.

Galatians 4: 4-5 (NASB) says, “… when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.”