The Nature of the Nativity: Day 8 - The Stable

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, when we finish this post, we will be past the halfway mark. Its hard to believe that one week from today is Christmas. I guess I should figure out what to get my wife as a present. Just kidding, I now what I'm getting her; I just have to actually go get it. Anyway, enough about me for now, let's continue setting up our nativity. Today we're having a good ole fashioned barn raisin'! Get it? A stable holds animals, and a barn holds...never mind. Let's get a roof over Mary and Joseph's head.

The Nature of the Nativity: Day 7 - The Innkeeper

Lucky number 7! We've made it a whole week which is almost halfway in our journey through the Nativity. For those who may be joining us for the first time, let's review what we've placed in our nativity scene so far.

• Day 1 - The introduction and truth behind the nativity
• Day 2 - The Table showed us that we need to make room for God in our lives.
• Day 3 - The Angels showed us that God's will will happen. He will guide us if we follow.
• Day 4 - Mary showed us that we have a duty to treasure the things that God has done in our life and to share what He has done with others.
• Day 5 - Joseph showed us that following God is more important than what other's may think about us.
• Day 6 - The Donkey showed us that if God asks us to do something, He will equip us to do it if we have the faith to follow him.

That brings us to day 7 and to the innkeeper. Some of you are piously talking to your screen, instructing me that there is no innkeeper in the nativity. My response back is, "There's no innkeeper mentioned in the Bible." In fact, some scholars say, if you look at the Greek word translated as "inn" or "lodging place" in Luke 2:7 you find it similar to the word that is translated "guest room" in other Bible passages. These same scholars postulate that it wasn't an inn that had a stable, it was a home...possibly even a relative of Joseph. Regardless of whether it was an inn or a home, I want to talk about the person. You see, no matter how you slice it, someone didn't have a room available. Someone let them sleep where he kept his animals. We will call this someone the innkeeper.

Mood Rings and Offshore Phone Calls

Do you remember mood rings? I never had one, but I had a few friends who did. The basic premise is that our body temperature changes depending on how we are feeling. The crystals in the ring are extremely sensitive to heat changes with different colors representing a higher or lower body temp. There is some correlation between stress and body temperature, so there might be some truth to the mood ring. I wish my wife had worn a mood ring before we started dating. If she had, I might have had a clue that she was interested. By her account, she waited for me to ask her out for over a year. She's even told me how irritated she would get when I would go out on dates with another girl during that year. Deep down I still believe she should have said something. Maybe she could have passed one of those notes from the third grade during Sunday School...(Circle yes or no if you'll be my boyfriend). Maybe not, I probably would have fallen off my chair if that would have happened. I bring all this up to say that I had no clue what was in this young lady's heart. God, however knows the hearts of all men. 

Fire Detectors and Fish Prayers

I have the privilege to work with some fantastic preschool teachers and aides. They love kids and do a good job teaching them, much better than I would do. There is very little for me to do except stay out of the way of their well-run school program. However, sometimes things happen to mess up our carefully made plans and you just have to go with it. Last month our school had a visit from the fire marshal. Apparently the building that was put up in the late 50's was never inspected for educational purposes. Now, we are working to resolve all matters with the State Fire Marshal, but it's been hysterical in the mean time...mostly because I don't have to do it. The main problem we are facing is that there is no fire alarm system in the building. We have smoke detectors, but not a building wide fire alarm system that an educational building in Louisiana is required to have. To compensate for this while we install one, someone has to do a visual check of each room in the building (I stopped counting at 18) and then call it in to the office that there is no fire...every thirty minutes. I know it's mean, but I actually snickered out loud when the fire marshall was sitting in my office telling me this. For the most part I'm a "by the book" person, so I typed up a form and organized our aides into a temporary fire watch team (I almost got little fake badges). It took about two weeks for the aides to get it straight, because they still had classroom duties to attend to. They eventually had to work out a rotating schedule because they could only be in one place at a time. The aides were limited by space and time. God, however, is not.

Tracking Hurricanes

Growing up in South Louisiana, you learn things you don't necessarily learn everywhere else. Some of it is practical experience, like what size alligator you can hit with your car and it not do damage. How fast a water moccasin can swim in flood waters. What is a  nutria exactly?(Google it; so nasty!) One of the things you learn in school is how to track hurricanes on a tracking map. Now, I was lucky that I've never experienced a major hurricane, but like you, I have seen the devastation that a hurricane can do. In the last few months, the US has seen out breaks of tornadoes that have done massive damage to people and property.  When viewing the aftermath of one of these storms, I would dare say it is impossible to not be awed at the power of wind.

The last few weeks we've been exploring God's character. We've looked at the attributes that make Him who He is, but we won't have a complete picture of who God is until we look at His capabilities.