Plastic Manger Scenes

Last week, Something caught my attention at a Christmas Party with some old friends from College.

In the middle of talking with some old friends and getting to know some new ones, something caught my eye. I looked over at the dining room table where I had set the gift I won at the White Elephant Gift Exchange. Laying amongst used plates and half eaten pieces of pie was a faded plastic Baby Jesus from a manger scene.
Yep, I won a Baby Jesus!

I love Christmas, the lights, EGG NOG and most of all the reason we celebrate -Christ’s Birth. This season commemorates the truth of how God, coming from Heaven to Earth and being fully man, yet fully God was Emmanuel. “God with Us!”

As I stared at that plastic figurine, it felt so funny to me that we would try to make a symbol of Christ out of plastic. Yet, here it was -Baby Jesus from someones manger scene sitting on the table surrounded by so many other symbols of the Christmas Season. For a moment I thought, what an understatement, the God of the Universe represented in a small plastic figurine. Very simple, small and actually kind of funny looking without the rest of the Manger Scene (I hope this is just from a retired manger scene and not somebody’s front yard).

But then I think of the true story of Christmas, of how a OMNIPOTENT GOD came to earth in the humble form of a Baby. A simple little Baby. He humbled himself to die on the cross for our sins. -Yet through His humble life, He OVERCAME our sin.

I felt weird seeing that figurine in the middle of the table surrounded by Christmas decorations and other presents that people had won at the party. But I have to think back to how Jesus really did come into this world -in the middle of regular life. “There was no room for him in the Inn” so Mary and Joseph did what they could. They found a stable to stay in. There, among farm animals, Jesus, the Messiah, Savior of the world was born and placed in a manger. In the middle of our mess, He came to us.

Do you want to read the Christmas Story?
Here’s a link to the Christmas Story in Luke 2:1-20
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-20&version=NIV#.UMa8WWfKcAk.email