Christmas Traditions
Years ago when our four children were young, we developed an annual Christmas tradition that continues to this day. On the weekend of Thanksgiving I would go into our storage to find the nativity scene that had been so meticulously stored the year before. Even this nativity has a story: my wife and I had purchased each matching piece over a five year period during the first years of our marriage. Each figure eventually became the favorite of a different member of the family. In one of my “crafty” moods as a young father I had built the barn and manger housing the nativity. We found the right kind of straw and my wife made a cloth to underlay the entire arrangement.
Once the barn and manger were set in that special place in the house, I un-wrapped each nativity figure and the children took turns placing them in the manger scene. When the kids were younger they vied for who got to place Mary or the shepherds or the cow and who, this year, got the donkey. Baby Jesus was always wrapped and placed at the bottom of the box, so that figure was always the last one un-wrapped the following year. Each year a different child was bestowed with the high honor of placing Baby Jesus in the manger. All the time this process was taking place we laughed, told manger stories from earlier years—more as the years have gone by, and talked about what the coming of Christ on earth means to each of us today.
At one time or another in their early years all of our children would remove a figure from the nativity scene to carry around with them in the house. I remember one occasion when I said something to my wife that I never dreamed I would say, “We have a cow in our tub.”
One memory from this family tradition remains especially poignant for my wife and me yet today. Of all the Christmas story participants represented in that manger scene, the one our children most often chose to remove and carry with them was the Baby Jesus. There little hearts were always drawn to that figure, drawn to its special significance, and drawn to the story of Jesus’ love for them and for all of us. While their young minds did not yet grasp the full and powerful meaning of biblical theology, they did understand that the first Christmas so long ago was about so much more than bright lights and trees, new toys, and lots of good things to eat.
On this Thanksgiving weekend the Rogers family will re-enact a Christmas tradition that now includes two grandsons, one of whom will place the Baby Jesus in the manger.
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© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved
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