When I put our manger scene out at the beginning of advent I left baby Jesus hidden so that I can talk about his coming with the little girls (Chloe age 6 and Ryleigh age 3) all through the season. We have the scene down on a table where our granddaughters can look at it, play with the figures and see it every time they visit. The very first time they visited after it was out, our astute almost 7 year old noticed right away that the baby wasn't in the scene. She has asked each time she visits "Is it time for Jesus yet? Where is he?"
Last night the little girls spent a few hours with us, and as usual the living room/kitchen area was set up with various vignettes for their Barbie and small dolls collection, they were playing very nicely together while Gr-pa and I relaxed in our chairs. When it was time to clean up, the familiar whirlwind of activity took place - putting everything back in order before their mom arrived to pick them up. The cards and blocks were all back in their containers after serving as sofas, and other furniture. The dishtowels hung back on the rack instead of being rugs and blankets, and all of the Barbies and other dolls placed back in their storage tub. Then I noticed this:
A ballerina in the manger! She's "having a talk with Mary" as they all wait for Jesus to arrive! Well, why not? Chloe visits that manger scene each time she is in our house and she is not so patiently waiting to see that baby, she just didn't want it to be empty anymore and it was the perfect place to have her ballerina take a rest.
While this scene probably isn't much like the actual place where Jesus was born, it did take me back to our story of Ruth that we have been visiting this week. Just like Chloe's ballerina, Ruth was a 'foreigner' in the land of Boaz. She visited that strange place - the harvesting/threshing floor and things were set in place for her life (and that of her mother in law Naomi) to change for the good. Take some time today to read the last chapter of Ruth, 4:1-18 to learn the rest of the story. Naomi, who names herself bitter, and Ruth seemed to be in an impossible life situation, yet things turned completely around for them. Despair turned to joy - did you see God in that situation? At the end of the chapter we see the link from Tamar and Judah's sons in Genesis, to Ruth and Boaz's son. That line is then ultimately traced down to Jesus, and here we are at the manger. If you were Naomi how do you imagine you would sit with the little boy Obed and explain how his dad and mom came to be married? How would you weave God into the story?
A little plastic ballerina doesn't seem to fit in the manger scene, but I think I may just leave her there for the season! Aren't we all foreigners in some way, looking for answers from God? Take some time today to look back at your past relationships, ones that molded you and changed the direction of your life. How has God intervened in your life in unexpected ways and through 'out of the ordinary' people? Let yourself be the ballerina in the scene today, sit down for a chat with Mary and Joseph - ponder why they so obediently followed God, and then ask how you can do the same. Keep asking "why Jesus?"
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