Is your Nativity Showing?

Last year Mindy found this amazing table and wine bar/cabinet (I don’t the name of these kinds of things) on Craig’s list. It was just what we needed to display a nativity that Mindy’s mom had purchased for us. The nativity is totally breakable, and while my kids have gotten better at handling things gently, it is not one that you want to risk kids touching. It looked beautiful on the wine bar last Christmas, so instead of packing it away and chance breaking it, I left it out all year. Every time people came over to eat with us at our dinning room table, there was our nativity. Mindy said a couple of times that I should put it away, but I left it out. To me it was my way of saying I am always preparing for Jesus to come.

You’ll hear me say time and time again, Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time to prepare for the coming of Jesus. In many ways we have lost that in church, and certainly in society, because we rush to Christmas. We miss the preparation part. Part of the preparation is the dirty work, dragging in the tree or breaking out the boxes and putting it all together. It is hanging up the stockings. (Every day my kids remind me that one of ours is missing a hook.) It is cleaning up the broken ornaments. Preparation is work, and it takes time and effort. We often want to move right into the good stuff and forget all about the preparation. Yet the preparation is very important.

John the Baptist was sent with the message to prepare the way. So what did he do? He showed up and started cleaning up all the broken stuff. He walked in talking about the sin in people’s lives and what they needed to fix. He baptized many as they came to realize they couldn’t clean up their broken stuff without Jesus. Their preparation was acknowledging the brokenness in their lives, and coming to Jesus.

The beauty of this season brings us back to the fact that we cannot live up to Christmas. We can’t live up to its awe and wonder. Time and time again we need to prepare our lives by acknowledging that we are broken, and prepare our hearts and mind by repenting and hearing the forgiveness given.

Maybe there is another reason I don’t want to put that nativity away. I know putting it away could lead to me having to clean up broken pieces the next year. I don’t want to have to clean up the broken pieces, and therefore I leave it out, figuring this way it can’t break. The reality is, even with it up all year, it still may break.  In life, plenty of things break, which makes the Advent preparation season a very necessary and wonderful season each year. This year, is your nativity showing? What areas of your life need preparation for that breathtaking moment intended for you – the moment of Jesus’ birth?