Due to the hectic nature of my schedule, which I readily admit is almost entirely my own doing, I often find myself trying to bring grand ideas to pass at the last minute. Such was the case with our Nativity set on the church lawn this year. Our custodian/decorators did such a breathtaking job with the decorations on the inside of the church that I figured some new outside decorations would be warranted as well.
My initial thought, since the front lawn of our church is a huge, lovely hillside, was to put up a real Nativity set. But as I thought through both the construction time and the storage needs such a structure would require, I quickly scratched that idea and went with the next best thing I could think of. I ordered a “full-size,” realistically painted metal set. And, true to Amazon form, it arrived just a few days later.
I knew when I looked at the box that I was likely to be a bit underwhelmed. And sure enough, once I had everything assembled and in place, I found that the 48-inch figures, when placed on our huge hillside, look a bit more like hobbits than Mary and Joseph and Shepherds and Wise Men.
Next year, I plan to start earlier and do something much grander.
All of the Nativity scene assembly, though, really got me thinking about the individuals themselves. One thought led to another as I mulled the Christmas Scriptures over in my differently wired brain, and I eventually came to the conclusion that an additional character or two may be warranted in that scene.