The cattle are lowing…

Most years in our house we craft a recycled nativity scene as part of our Advent preparations. On different occasions we have used cardboard, pipe cleaners, egg shells (if anyone knows how to make a decent star out of an egg let me know!), and wooden blocks, among other household items.

Nativity scenes have become such a fixture in homes across the globe at Christmas that it’s hard to imagine the birth of Christ occurring without such a tableau. Yet the first Nativity scene is actually attributed to St Francis of Assisi in 1223 in Italy after he gained special permission from the Pope to set up a real live ass and ox in a cave with a manger, to draw people in to hear Francis preach on the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’. Since then it has been interpreted many different ways, even banned at times, and finally developed into the scene we know today with the Holy Family, Shepherds, Magi, (even though Shepherds and Magi never appear together in the Gospel accounts!) and attendant farm animals, from around the 17th Century.

In honour of St Francis’ first nativity, this year at St Mary’s we are very excited to have our very own nativity animals coming to visit with goats, sheep, a donkey, a Shetland pony and chickens all visiting the churchyard from 10am-12noon on Saturday for ‘Experience Christmas!’ There will also be lots of Christmas crafts, stories and singing in Church too (ideal for children age 3-11).

Maybe what the large crowds who came to visit Francis’ first nativity saw in this scene was not the tame, polite Christmas card version, but in fact something symbolic about the Incarnation itself; that God came to meet us in a world that was real, messy, noisy and hungry - just like the animals that surrounded his crib. And if he could meet humanity amongst the messy reality of life then, perhaps he can meet us too in the messy reality of our lives today.