I grew up in the church, so from a very young age I remember being in Christmas plays. I wasn't very good in them however, for example the only time I was given a real solo I preceded to blank on the lyrics in front a packed house. It was a line from “Do You Hear What I Hear” so every year I tend to twitch when that song comes on the radio.
I was a shepherd, but there were tons of parts. There was Mary, Joseph, the donkey, the ox, tons of sheep and even the three wise men if you were lucky (or your church had too many kids).
That ensemble really stuck in my brain, the classic nativity scene. All these characters huddled around the manger in wonder as they looked upon the baby Jesus. It’s a really beautiful thought. However, it’s also wrong.
If you dig a little deeper (google will do) you will find that there is no evidence of a donkey or an Ox. We know for sure that the wise men (called Magi) found Jesus, but not for several years after his birth. It’s confirmed in scripture that there were shepherds, (my role would have remained intact) we just don’t know how many showed up and how many sheep they brought with them.
So there you have it, the cold cynical truth. Your nativity scene, is in fact, a lie.
Even still, there is something despite its historical inaccuracy, that the nativity scene does to us on a deeper level. There is something incredibly beautiful and needed about it.
When I was in that aforementioned Christmas play… in my seven year old brain this was a historical reenactment, it was real, and I was living in the story. There was no doubt or question in my mind that the shepherd I was playing was present at the birth of Jesus.
Then I got older and slowly I began to realize that a lot of what experienced in those Christmas plays and saw in all those nativity scenes was sensationalized It looked a whole lot better on stage to have all the characters there, It sold a lot more units of plastic Nativity goodness if there were more figurines but it wasn't really true, it wasn't a fact.
For many, this is where faith begins to slowly wither. We lose our sense of wonder. We cease to actually live in the story as we did before, but look on as new children take up the mantel as ferociously as we once did.
Instead of living in the story, we simply watch the play. Our wonder has vanished.
Let’s talk about wonder for a second.
Wonder is a word we often ascribe to the Christmas season. It’s a word we don’t regularly use in Christian lingo and I’m surprised by that. It’s such a great word. At the same time, you can be full of wonder, you can also be wondering about something. It’s possible to use the word to describe great hope and inspiration but it can also be used to describe deep doubt and questioning, even a sense of fear.
What is it about the idea of wonder that so artfully tackles the spirit of Christmas? It’s because it embraces the awe. It holds within it both the excitement and the mystery. I believe that’s precisely what we are called to as we walk with Jesus.
Now with wonder in mind, let’s circle back to our nativity scene. Every person represented in its little barn with a mange has some basis in scripture, even the ox and the donkey. They come out of a prophetic passage in Isaiah 1:3 proclaiming the coming messiah.
“The ox knows its master,
The donkey its ownerʼs manger,
But Israel does not know,
My people do not understand.”
(Isaiah 1:3 NIV)
The only part of this passage that links to the actual Christmas event is the manger. The beautiful genius of the nativity scene is that it adds in the ox and the donkey as a wink to this passage. It looks back into history and places the past as well as the present at the manger.
The visual of the ox and the donkey are there to remind us that the birth of Jesus means the fulfillment of this old prophesy. People are going to know Him, people are going to come to him for not just the water that usually would have been in a manger but for the living water Jesus later speaks of.
The addition of the animals and the magi (who come much later) and all the shepherds creates a reminder that we must remember the whole story, past, present and future. It begs us to stop getting so caught up in the literal.
When we're staring at the nativity scene and historically, it’s all wrong, it’s actually all right. We’re looking at the whole story, all together.
Wonder means taking something in that we can’t define, categorize, or pin down. It’s supposed to be messy; that’s faith.
Do you know what the antonym of wonder is? I looked it up. The antonym of wonder is certainty.
This time of year is all about the wondrous possibility of uncertainty. That there is no way we can pin Jesus down or figure him totally out. It is about the here and the now and what is to come, just like all the characters in the nativity scene.
So next time you stumble upon a nativity scene, may you have the courage to stop simply watching the play and start living in the story with childlike wonder.