{"id":13959,"date":"2025-12-27T10:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T10:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=13959"},"modified":"2025-12-27T10:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T10:09:22","slug":"the-nativity-scene-makes-no-earthly-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=13959","title":{"rendered":"The Nativity scene makes no earthly sense"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Patti Garibay<\/span><\/span>, Op-ed Contributor Thursday, December 25, 2025<\/span>iStock\/Studio-Annika<\/span><\/p>\n

The Christmas season is such a special time for every Christian. <\/p>\n

As a young girl, I marveled at the concept of the whole world knowing it is Christmas Day, a day set apart to celebrate the greatest gift ever given to humanity. Decades later, as I matured and saw more of the world and its rapidly changing post-Christian culture, I realized not everyone in this world acknowledges the day as miraculous. But as for me and my house \u2026 we will celebrate the season as the gift that it is, and was, and always will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years ago, to order my heart during a very hectic month, I started a collection of nativity scenes. I began to see my collection growing and loved the idea of tangibly seeing the Gospel message shared across the globe through these sometimes-tiny nativities. While engaging in overseas travel, the one souvenir that is a \u201cmust-have\u201d is that specific country\u2019s iteration of the nativity scene. From Costa Rica to Germany, from Bethlehem to Kenya, I have entered the doors of small shops in search of a nativity representative of the country I am visiting. There are times during my travels, however, that the scenes are elusive, unavailable, unimportant. I pray for those people in those countries that the light of the Lord makes its way to their souls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So why is the biblical nativity account, as mentioned in the New Testament and prophesied in the Old Testament, so important, so symbolic, so everlasting?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nativity is\u00a0defined\u00a0as the process or circumstances of being born; the birth of Jesus. Nativity is from the\u00a0Latin word\u00a0nativus<\/em>, which means \u201carisen by birth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Holman Bible Dictionary explains, \u201cHis conception was virginal. Angels announced His advent. His actual birth occurred in a place and time that was no place and time for a baby to be born. Angels announced. Shepherds heard, came, and wondered. Magi came later to bring gifts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Messiah, the King of Kings, the Savior of us all, was born to a young, unmarried teenage girl of a faith-filled Jewish family. Her pregnancy was viewed as a scandal by some and as an incredible act of faith by others. Jesus\u2019 mother, Mary, was not the typical mother of a king.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The birthplace of Jesus, a cave in the tiny town of Bethlehem, underscores the contrast between His purpose and His divinity. Jesus\u2019 humble birthplace, beneath the fields where shepherds abided, seems an unlikely place for a King to come into this world. Gone are the gilded thrones and royal linens, but rather a wooden manger with cloth wrapping the divine child.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The kings from the East came later, expecting to find the prophesied Emmanuel in a palatial environment. Rather, the shepherds of the field were Jesus\u2019 first visitors. In first-century Palestine, shepherds were rarely welcomed as house guests. They were not even allowed to worship in the temple, due to their disgusting smell from working with the sheep all day. Yet, these were the first visitors to the King of Kings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus, our Savior, God\u2019s chosen Son \u2026 born of a virgin in a humble cave whose bassinet was an animal\u2019s feed trough with stinking shepherds as the first to offer\u00a0congratulations. What a picture, one that was beautifully orchestrated by our God who wanted to share His love with the entire world, despite location or station in life. He wants all of us to know His love and His promise of eternal life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this is why I display my 40-plus Nativity scenes each Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

My prayer is that whoever enters the threshold of our home will know the story of Christmas and that they, too, are invited to worship the King of Kings and share in His greatest gift of all, eternal life. He truly is Good News.<\/p>\n

Patti Garibay is the founder and executive director emeritus of American Heritage Girls (AHG,\u00a0www.AmericanHeritageGirls.org), a national Christ-centered leadership and character development program.\u00a0For nearly three decades, AHG has been at the forefront of countering the culture by leading girls and women to create lives of integrity. Patti is the author of\u00a0Why Curse the Darkness When You Can Light A Candle?,<\/em> a story of trust and obedience to inspire those who desire to make a Kingdom impact yet struggle with the fear of inadequacy. Patti is the host of the\u00a0Raising Godly Girls (RGG)\u00a0podcast\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cRaising Godly Girls\u201d\u00a0one-minute\u00a0radio feature, which helps to equip, affirm and strengthen girls with timely Scripture-based advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patti Garibay, Op-ed Contributor Thursday, December 25, 2025iStock\/Studio-Annika The Christmas season is such a special time for every Christian. As a young girl, I marveled at the concept of the whole world knowing it is Christmas Day, a day set apart to celebrate the greatest gift ever given to humanity. Decades later, as I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[4081,3700,4080,2691],"class_list":["post-13959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-earthly","tag-nativity","tag-scene","tag-sense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}