22nd Day of Christmas - Nativity Scenes

The Christian symbol of Christmas is the Nativity scene, also known as the creche, or crib. This scene illustrates the night of Jesus' birth (and in some cases such as the Wise Men, other scenes from his first two years).

God has known all along that Adam and Eve would sin and bring death and separation from Him to the world. Therefore, all along He has had a plan in place to redeem his beloved creation. However, God does everything in His timing, so He did not send His Son right away. In order to give mankind hope though, he dropped hints along the way in Scripture about the coming Messiah. These were like the hints our loved ones give us prior to Christmas regarding what our gift is going to be.

Scripture revealed many little hints to the big surprise to come, including:

• The child would be born of a virgin


• The child would be born in Bethlehem


• He would be a descendant of Israel's beloved King David

Our nativity scenes illustrate these prophecies as well, the stable in Bethlehem, Mary the virgin mother, Joseph the descendant of David, the star, the wise men bringing gifts from the East and of course the main surprise, the baby Jesus.

Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manager." (Luke 2:10-12)