We bought a Nativity set that little hands could touch without us worrying about pieces breaking. We like to keep it up through the Feast of the Presentation, February 2. What I love about the Fontanini set is that it’s resin so it has not broken (yet), and it’s quite extensive, so we’ve been adding to it through the years, acquiring a new little piece each Christmas season.
Our first several children were very traditional in their arrangements, and would come by and rearrange the last child’s set-up (which led to a few scuffles). But our youngest (I call him Buck here) has been a bit more creative, even adding a John Deere tractor. Since the new year, I’ve been finding it like this:
Yes, baby Jesus is at the bottom of a scrum. And during evening prayer, he will often go re-arrange it, lining them all up, or putting a cat in the manger with Jesus.
It reminded me of why I am writing this blog. We all want our families and homes to look like the first photo: all put together in the right place, peaceful, holy. But we all know the reality of Jesus’ birth, that he was born in the stinky muck of a stable. And we don’t do our friends (or our ourselves) any favors to pretend. Sometimes, and maybe even more often than not, our homes look like the bottom photo, jumbled together, one hot mess. But Jesus is there, in the midst. His presence in the mess is what makes our homes holy.