Image: Melanie Kyer
Rebel in the Manger
My mother did a lot of ceramic painting in the 1970s, the most extensive of which was our treasured nativity set, complete with nearly two dozen pieces including camels and even goats. I was allowed to carefully unwrap them in December and place them meticulously in a tableau on the bay window. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned there were “rules”: the baby Jesus must not go in the manger until Christmas and the wise men should under no circumstances appear until Epiphany.
Perhaps my mother was unaware of “the rules” or perhaps she just didn’t want to trust that setting the figures aside wouldn’t end up in their being broken. But here’s my hot take: display the whole story at once if you want to. The only “manger police” are self-appointed. In a world where we retell the Christmas story year after sacred year, Jesus is at once born and yet-to-be-born at the same time. The Magi have been and gone and will come again. The two sheep in my nativity scene are just placeholders, both for the sheep that may have been at the birth and the sheep who are…us. It is only common Western custom that there are three wise men anyway– Eastern Christianity numbers them at twelve.
Taken as a set, the scene allows us to look with new eyes on it every time we see it. Maybe the weary eyes of the camel shine under the Christmas lights and tell their story when I need to hear it, even if that’s not on January 6th.
My mother’s nativity set now has pride of place in my home and continues to represent not only the nativity story in all its aspects, but the years of care she put into painting them and the tradition of placing them every year which engraved that story on my heart.
May the story continue to live in you this Epiphany and always
Melanie Kyer