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Listen while you read: "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen"1
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This Christmas season, I've set up an unusual, private nativity display which I'm eager to describe for you. It features several photographs of tiny babies born at the Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. Two photos are of triplets. I notice their spindly legs, the size of a finger. Some photos include mothers in colourful saris. Joy is radiating from their faces. In all these photos, the babies are held in the arms of an expatriate nurse, a dear friend who has kept me in touch through her many letters and pictures over the decades.
I credit my unusual nativity idea to St. Francis of Assisi. This thirteenth-century monk used a lowly rural setting with animals as a visual aid illustrating the lowly situation of Christ's birth. That got me thinking: What visual aid can I make that serves the same purpose, that shows how Christ came to earth identifying with lowly humanity?
Philippians 2:6-7 – Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, [Christ] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (NIV 2011)
For me, the tiny babies in these photographs illustrate that truth. Here I see Christ, through His followers, touching vulnerable new lives. These infants weren't laid in a manger, but in incubators in a modernly equipped hospital. Their mothers may have had high-risk pregnancies or some other complication. Here they receive a better chance of survival.
The vision and growth of this mission hospital is described in autobiographies that I've also displayed. The book, Daktar, by Viggo Olsen M.D., is summarized on Amazon as "an enthralling account of a brilliant surgeon skilled in diplomacy". Here we read about the tumultuous birthing of the nation, Bangladesh. We gain an appreciation for the sacrificial work done to alleviate poverty and suffering.
My display includes hand-crafted items gifted to me over the years, mostly made by women in the Widows group that my friend began, herself a widow. This Widows fellowship was formed to help restore dignity to widows who, through losing their husbands, also lost their social status and became outcasts.
These widows remind me of the shepherds near Bethlehem who were also considered outcasts. Yet, they were the first to receive the exciting announcement of Christ's birth. They heard the angels praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14b NIV 2011)
The widows, mothers, and babies featured in my display are visual aids of this promise, for they are experiencing God's favour resting on them. Like the shepherds, these are ones spreading the good news among their people. They are humble displays of His glory.
This Christmas season, let's do our best to see the Christmas story through new eyes, such as theirs, and not be distracted by distressing news of current world events.
Prayer: Lord, our peaceful trust in You is so easily robbed by the anxious noise of strife and catastrophe. Revive our hope through the displays of Your glory shining through the darkness. Amen.
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About the author:
Diane Eaton <dianeeaton6@gmail.com>
Paisley, Ontario, Canada
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Note from Diane Eaton:
After submitting this devotional, I learned more about St. Francis of Assisi and the ascetic lifestyle practiced in the Franciscan Order. This comment (via email) helps me appreciate why he chose the stable for his nativity scene:
“… for the bulk of his adult life [Francis lived] in caves, barns and other such places where comfort and amenities were minimal or outright non-existent. Only at the very end of his life did he apparently regret being excessively merciless that way.”
Thanks for the inspirational thoughts, Diane.
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us. Blessings.
Thank you, Diane, for a wonderful modern visual of a creche.
Peace.
Thanks, Diane, for a refreshing perspective of the nativity scene.
Blessings.
Wonderful, creative display so needed at this point in time and on every remembrance of Christmas.
Thanks, Diane, for sharing your novel idea for a nativity scene. The items we save in life bring back precious memories.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas, and a bright and happy New Year.
Oh my goodness, Diane…what a blessing your devotional today is to me and a reminder that God is in control, and we must focus on our faith in Jesus Christ and actions in the world that represent him.
Thank you.
Many thanks for another of your very interesting and descriptive devotionals Diane. Your nativity creation sounds beautiful and compares ideally with what has been expressed to us about the original scene of Jesus birth. Blessings for writing and enjoy this advent season along with your beautiful display.
Thank you, Diane, for a truly beautiful and unique Christmas message.
My day has suddenly become brighter as I was lifted up above the traumas and need in the world.
God bless you.
Merry Christmas.
(On)
Good Thursday morning Diane!
So touched by your devotional this morning and with your wrap up:
‘This Christmas season, let’s do our best to see the Christmas story through new eyes, such as theirs, and not be distracted by distressing news of current world events.’
God’s best to you and Tim this Christmas and in the New Year!!
Jesus was born into a troubled world – Israel then and now is difficult. Mary and Joseph had to return to their homeland on orders of Caesar. They obeyed and Mary gave birth to Jesus on this journey, not in a hospital but a shelter for animals. The men from the East were searching for the King and asked Herod where the Messiah would be born,- Bethlehem. Herod ordered the death of all baby boys under two. God told Joseph to escape. They went to Egypt as refugees.
Dear Diane,
Thanks so much for this devotional. It makes me think of a picture from a missionary friend who has a Children’s Home in Guinea and several years ago they were looking after six sets of twins. In their area if the mother of twins died in childbirth, the extended family had no way of looking after the newborns. It was a happy day when the children were able to be restored to their extended families.
Today I have been copying out ideas from Safe and Sound by David Powlison about spiritual warfare as a Christmas present for a friend.
It is a real blessing to me to read about how Jesus is at the centre of spiritual warfare and not Satan. Jesus is the truth.
Righteousness in the way to take on all that is hurtful and false and so on.
Have a blessed Christmas.
Thank you, Diane, for sharing with us this unusual display and encouraging us to see Christmas through new eyes.