Merry Christmas, and bless you loyal follower!
Walking around the house today, I had time to look at the various manger scenes we have collected through the years.
My children had their favorites, but when I was a little girl, we only had one nativity.
Placing the Christ Child and Mary and Joseph, and all of the animals and kings and shepherds in the manger was a special Christmas tradition. I wondered about the star, the angels, but especially about Mary and Joseph. Your children may be doing some wondering as well, so let’s think about what some of those questions might be and how you might answer them.
Children are so practical, that it may not be the spiritually rich questions that they are wondering about. At least not at first. With new words to consider like frankincense, and swaddling, and sore afraid, and…
“Mommy, what does virgin mean?” Your daughter asks as she is arranging the nativity on the coffee table.
You, however, are focused on untangling the tree lights and can’t really hear her over the high volume of Elf in the background.
“VIRGIN MARY” she asks again, but in equal volume….”What does VIRGIN mean?”
“OH!” looking up, “MARY! Yes, she is called the Virgin Mary because she wasn’t married yet.”
After a pause, you start again.
“She had never been close to a man, like a wife and husband are.”
You wonder if it’s easier to untangle the lights or the words you are tossing out.
“Huh??”Her 6-year-old eyes are squinting.
You put down the tree lights, find the remote to turn down the volume, and cross your legs to sit on the floor next to her at the coffee table.
As you pick up the Virgin Mary, you tell her sweetly, “Mary was a young lady engaged to Joseph….that means that they were intending to get married, but were not yet married, so they did not live together or sleep together. She had kept herself pure for her husband, which meant that she had not shared her body with any man. The Bible tells us all of this. God chose her to give birth to His son, Jesus. God sent an angel to tell Mary all about it, and at first Mary was a little scared, but more than anything she was honored to be Jesus’ mother, because she loved God.”
Now you pick up Joseph.
Actually you accidentally pick up a shepherd, but your daughter corrects you and hands you Joseph.
“Joseph loved Mary, but when he found out that Mary was pregnant with the baby Jesus, he could not understand how that could have happened. God had never done anything like this before, and Joseph was thinking that perhaps Mary had become pregnant by being with some other man. An angel from God came to Joseph and reassured him that indeed God had placed his Only Son in Mary’s womb and that they were to name the baby Jesus because He would save His people from their sins.”
“From that time on, Joseph took very good care of both Mary and the Christ Child that she was carrying. He was probably the first to see Jesus when He was born! He and Mary knew from the beginning that Jesus was fully God and fully man, and they were amazed!”
By this time she is reaching for the remote because this is now her favorite part of Elf.
But you look on in wonder…. again. And someday, she will, too!
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