Bringing home the Nativity -- the heart of traditional Christmas

It was not by chance that Christ was born in a stable, a real stable, not the bright, airy covered verandah which Christian artists have created for the Son of David, as though ashamed that their God should have lain down in poverty and dirt. And not the modern Christmas Eve "Holy Stable" either, made of plaster of Paris, with little candy-like statuettes, the holy stable, clean and prettily painted, with a tidy manger, an ecstatic ass, a contrite ox, and angels fluttering their wreaths on the roof -- this is not the stable where Christ was born.

The real stable is a filthy place. It has only four rough walls, a dirty pavement, a roof of beams and slate. It is dark, reeking, cold and bare.

The only clean thing in it is the manger where fresh hay and fodder are heaped. It was in this stable, where no decorations or perfumes can hide the odor, that Jesus appeared one night, born of a Virgin armed only with innocence.

First to worship him were animals, beasts of burden, not men. Though humble, the ass and the ox had seen multitudes kneeling before them. Christ's own people, the people of Jehovah, whom Jehovah had freed from Egyptian slavery when their leader left them alone in the desert to go up and talk with the Eternal, forced Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship. In Greece, the ass was sacred to Ares, to Dionyius, to Hyperborean Apollo. Balaam's ass, wiser than the prophet, saved him by speaking. Oxus, King of Persia, put an ass in the temple of Ptha, and had it worshiped. And Augustus, Christ's temporal sovereign, had set up in the temple the bronze statue of an ass, to commemorate the good omen of his meeting on the eve of Actium, an ass named "the Victorious."

Up to that time the kings of the earth and the populace craving material things had bowed before oxen and asses. But Jesus did not come into the world to reign over the earth, nor to love material things. He was to bring an end the bowing down before beasts, the weakness of Aaron, and the superstition of Augustus. In the meantime, it is the gentle beasts of Bethlehem who warmed him with their breath.

In homes and churches throughout the world, especially in European and American nations, the Bethlehem scene is the heart of traditional celebrations. When one views a typical Nativity scene, or creche, it may contain three different art forms -- the characters, carved from wood, formed from wax, papier-m…chŽ, clay, or even hand-painted on cardboard; the buildings that range from Alpine stables and guest homes to romantic Roman ruins, and some scenes might have Oriental-style structures with minarets and domes while others include the shops that would be found in the village along with huts and tents for the shepherds in the fields; and a painted background. Some European artists have achieved fame in painting such scenes as pastoral hillsides or a continuation of buildings in an imagined Bethlehem.

Over time, various elements of the creche have taken on symbolic meanings. The star, which guides the Three Kings, symbolizes the presence of God. Some creche collectors leave out the star and replace it with angels in the role of guides to mankind. The Three Kings represent the homage due the divinity of Jesus by the powers of the world. They equally remind us of the known world, Europe, Africa and Asia, during the period when Christ was born. They also represent the three ages of life. The youngest, Gaspar, offers frankincense symbolizing purity and praise, Balthazar, the mature man, offers gold which symbolizes power and wealth, the old man, Melchior, offers myrrh used in preparing bodies for funerals. Their gifts also testify that Christ is at the same time God (frankincense), king (gold), and man destined for death (myrrh).

The Nativity scene remembered for its reality can be powerfully metaphoric of the greatest commandment in Christ's teachings (and found at the core of every major faith) -- to love one another. To care for, forgive, and resist judging one another. Jesus made heaven hinge on the way we act toward Him in his disguise of commonplace, frail, ordinary humanity.

For resources to build your own creche (including a 3-D project for kids), collecting Nativity scenes (from spendy to spend-thrift), front-row views of the world's largest creche and historical and religious perspectives on the nativity, a great starting point is Bill Egan's International Creche School at http://www.geocities.com/creche_school/austria.html. From that Web page you can follow his formidable list of links for a lot more information.