Ever since I was a kid, I’ve collected Nativity scenes. I love bringing them out each December, setting them up, watching my sons play with the pieces. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said, “The crib has a unique power to show us what it means to say that God wished to be ‘Immanuel’ — a ‘God with us.’”
But there is perhaps a subtle danger in the cuteness of the crèche — we may, on some level, slip into regarding the Christmas story as a mere fairy tale, a too-good-to-be-true story fit for a children’s animated special.
The first Christmas might not have looked much like our idealized images. But it really, really happened, and it is the hinge point of history. “These wonders make up the sum-total of the earth’s actual purpose and they are the fulfillment of all its expectations,” wrote the Jesuit Alfred Delp.
The Son of God came to us as a baby. He will come again in glory. And he comes to us, noticed or not, in myriad ways each day. Let us prepare to welcome him.
Northwest Catholic – December 2021/January 2022