The other day I referred to a nativity scene I had seen but was having trouble tracking down, well with a big thankyou to my good friend Alun it has been identified. This is it.
I like this, it seems to me to have an honesty, an integrity which most representations of the Nativity lack, these appear to be real people occupying the real world, not some fantasy world where everything is clean and nice. Yet there is still the essential Christian message of hope, the hope vested in that baby.
A few years ago my Vicar asked me what Christmas meant to me, this was a serious question so I gave some serious thought and concluded that Christmas is when it all starts to get better. The days get longer, the weather tends to get dryer, the worst of my personal expenses (apart from income tax) are past. Instead of looking forward to mid winter I start to look forward to Spring, I will soon be starting pruning and enjoying the first flowers.
Perhaps more to the point we can start looking forward to Easter, without the Hope that comes from Easter, Christmas is meaningless. It is through the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ bought us through His death and resurrection that we can appreciate the full enormity of the meaning of God becoming man which we celebrate at Christmas.
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