A missionary friend and I had just finished preaching a sermon last Sunday entitled, “Joy to the World.” We talked about the Shepherds found in the opening act of the first Christmas story found in Luke 2. As I was leaving the church that day, I noticed that the shepherd in our Nativity scene in the foyer had “lost his legs.” The figure had evidently been dropped and broken in two. I went to pick up the “top half” and in the motion of picking it up, it slid right out of my hands and onto the tiled floor. Oh my goodness! Now our shepherd consists of several more pieces. This was going from bad to worse!
The irony of this to me is thought provoking. Here I am, a man, handling another “person,” and with good intentions, I end up hurting them instead of helping to remedy the situation. Broken pieces seem to multiply even with the good intentions of helping. I think to myself today that the broken nativity scene is really what Christmas is all about! God sent His Son–Jesus, into a broken world to put all of the pieces back together again. The broken pieces that man has caused, that man has, the broken pieces of mankind!
This Christmas season, take some time to look at your Nativity Scene. Look at the faces painted or etched on the pottery figurines, all centered on the Christ-child. Maybe some of your figures are broken, but they are still looking to Jesus. Maybe you would say, “I am broken.” I would ask you, “Are you centered on Jesus?”
Next year, we will have a new Nativity Scene in our foyer. The current Nativity scene has seen better years. All that being said though, I will always remember the broken pieces that I caused. I will always remember to center my broken pieces on Christ! Will you?
Merry Christmas! Jesus thank you for putting the pieces, others pieces, my pieces – back together again!