I love nativity scenes.
I have several. They’re beautiful. I love looking at them. But, really, there’s something wrong with all of them.
They’re all pretty. And clean.
That’s what we want, of course. Pretty. Clean. Sweet. “Awww, look at baby Jesus, and pretty Mary, and all the sweet animals.” The majesty and holiness. “Ah, yes, that holy night, the wise men and angels worship the Christ-child.” Cue the angel choir and the heavenly light.
And there is, certainly, a miraculous and holy truth that’s being conveyed by our lovely nativity scenes. This WAS a holy birth. The Son of God Himself, born as a human! It’s overwhelming, when you really think about it. And so, of course, of course we make the nativity a beautiful, majestic scene. God deserves beautiful! And clean! And perfect!
But…the reality of that night? It wasn’t perfect. Or majestic. Or pretty. Or clean. Or sweet-smelling. Have you ever been in a barn where animals live? There’s a reason they call it “mucking out” the stalls – it’s because there’s, you know, muck, in the stalls. Even in clean barns. Where there are animals, there’s mess. There’s dirt. There’s filth of all sorts, and all the smells that go with it. Gross, nasty, filth. Not exactly the place you’d want to have your baby, right?
And I guess it would feel almost sacrilegious to have a nativity scene that conveyed all that. Or maybe it just wouldn’t be nice to look at. I mean, really, who would buy that one? The smelly, ugly, dirty one? Myself, I like to look at pretty things, when I get to choose. And I’d much rather smell citrus or peppermint (or frankincense and myrrh, if we’re going for the brighter side of biblical accuracy) than donkey sweat or sheep dung.
But you know what? God chose the real-life version of that nativity scene. He CHOSE the smelly, ugly, dirty one. And I think that’s important for us to remember and to consider.
The God who created the universe, who is holy and pure and all-powerful, in order to save His rebellious children from their sins, chose to humble Himself and be born in the likeness of men – in a stable. With all the filth.
There is so much beauty for us in this. God chose the stable with all its dirt and mess – and He also chooses to dwell in our own hearts, even with all our mess. He doesn’t need something to be clean for Him to be there. In fact, He makes us clean by being there!
We can’t clean ourselves up enough to make our hearts worthy of Him. Really, even the most extravagant palace we can imagine is not worthy of Him, and our own righteousness is worse than worthless compared to His. But when we recognize our sin, turn from it to Him, and truly believe what He tells us – that He came to save us from the consequences of our sin, that He overcame sin and death, that He means to make us like Him – then, faithful to His Word, He makes us clean. He transforms us, gives us new life, makes us part of His family, and welcomes us into His presence forever and ever.
The first nativity wasn’t clean and pretty, and neither are we. Enter Jesus. And now that I think about it that way, maybe our lovely nativity scenes make a bit more sense. The mess doesn’t really matter. It’s not the point. The scene is made beautiful because Jesus is there. Just like us.
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More Than This Mess 