The Nativity

It wasn't my intention to leave our Nativity set in the box until two nights ago, but it got lost amongst the other boxes of decorations. I'm kinda glad it did. That night during story time we read from the Bible (Luke, since we're a day behind in our Advent chain).







For the record we also read Raggedy Ann and Andy Help Santa Claus too. It's always a surprise which book gets unwrapped because my book collection is over 20 years old.









One of our unwrapped Christmas books is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. If you asked me which Christmas book I recommend I would say this one, hands down. When I stumbled upon it at Sam's Club six years ago I couldn't stop the tears that started pouring out. Every single time I read it I get goosebumps and choke up at the end.

The illustrations are gorgeous, but the very best
part is that Sam asks me to read it over and over again. He wants to hear the message that God cares about everyone and has a special place for each one of us. Even in hard times, He has a plan. He wants to hear about the birth of our King.

Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. I have a sneaky suspicion that our own little crippled lamb from a garage sale Nativity Set Grandma Rena picked up for the kids might have something to do with his interest. Sam loves to play with figurines. He only has a couple battery operated toys and even those require him to use his imagination to play with them.

I trust that some of the message is sinking in. He doesn't miss much (Case in point: He used the word "heck" in context today. I can see my Not Me post forming in my head already.) He sits and listens to this book time and time again.

When we were done with story time I let the kids take out the figurines for the Nativity set. They loved seeing them arranged around the stable.

"Where's Jesus?" Sam asked. "Well, He wasn't born until Christmas so we'll have to wait." "But where is he?" "Remember how the shepherds heard the good news that a savior had been born and came to worship Him? On Christmas Eve Jesus will be in the manger for the all of us to see. " "Is he in Mary's tummy?"

I told you he didn't miss much.