the nativity

Claire Flint Illustrations

one of my memories from growing up is my mother's love for ceramics. in fact, aside from our 70's chic, they were a major part of our family's Christmas decorations. i especially remember the Nativity. my mother made it in the '60's and it was so big, she would put it out on the console television (remember those?) and every year, my brothers and i would delight in rearranging it, little by little, just to see if mom knew we had changed things around. my sister would never do this because, well, she was the oldest and she was way too sophisticated to partake in such simple things with us...

i am happy to say that mom's Nativity has been part of my family's Christmas tradition now for the past five or six years. woe be to the sibling who tries to take it from me; good thing possession is 9/10 of the law.

last night at our family's Christmas party which was, by the way, tremendous! my nephew alex went up to the Nativity and in true *J* Family Form, rearranged it for me. i know it is a bad time for my camera to die on me, but suffice it to say they are aligned, facing east, in a row, on the edge of the table. i have to leave it like this for a bit because it was precious and he was very serious when he was arranging them for me. he is 2 1/2 and my sister-in-law says he lines everything up like that at home. i suppose he likes order :)

my brother, by way of background, has been an agnostic all of his life. he has been the focus of much prayer over the past years because i believe once the Holy Spirit gets ahold of his heart, there will be no turning back. he and his wife have been attending the Lutheran church in their area and he told me last night that the church called and asked if they would be the Holy Family for their live Nativity - she just had my other nephew in august - they had to decline because of travel plans, but he was proud they were offered *the main time slot* and walked around most of the night in "Joseph" poses, and discussing whether my various nativities i have up at the house (yeah, i have like 6 or 7 in various forms of objects d'art) are "pre-Renaissance era" as he had just watched a special on pbs about it...my nephew, by the way, knows Who's birthday is celebrated on Christmas Day and every once in a while, i'd see him go and pick up the porcelain baby Jesus, give Him a kiss, and put Him back on His manger...

and a little child shall lead them.