It has always fascinated me, even as a small child. There is a church up the street from my house and they have a life sized Nativity scene. I can remember jumping in the car with the folks to drive around town to see the all the lights that people had put on their houses and trees, then turning towards the church. We would drive by slowly and there it was, the life size figures sitting in a straw filled stable. There would be spot lights set to shine on the front of the scene and each figure, casting its own shadow, made it look so real to me. I had always wanted to walk up and sit in the stable with the Holy Family, but that was never an option.
Besides the Holy Family, my favorite characters of the Nativity scene were the three wise men. They seemed to be so stately, with long flowing robes of purple, a sign of great wealth. Their camels, adorned with the trappings of royalty, standing solemnly in the background.
When I was a kid, we had one Nativity scene. It was the one piece plastic kind, with glitter glued randomly around the edges and on the roof of the stable. I couldn't wait for Mother to unwrap it to put in her small village scene. There was a small hole in the back of the stable and she would always put a bulb from the light strand in the hole so the stable would glow and the little plastic figures would cast their own shadows.....it just looked so real.
I bought my first Nativity scene the year my oldest daughter was born. It had 19 separate pieces and was made of white plaster. I worked for hours painting each piece to make them appear as "real" as possible. Besides the Holy Family, there were shepherds, sheep, one cow, one donkey, an angel and the three wise men with their three camels. The wise men were posed in various forms of adoration and each had their own separate gift. The camels sported long thick blankets, draped over saddles and tasseled bridles. Since these were my favorite pieces, I took special care to paint each character as lavishly as I could.
Several years ago, while attending a weekend conference, there was a Sunday morning service offered so I decided to attend. I do not recall the entire message the speaker delivered, but he said one sentence that nearly knocked me out of my seat. In fact, when he uttered the words, I was so furious I nearly got up and left the room. Surely he could not be right, how could he stand there and say that in front of a room full of people? I was so shocked, I didn't hear another word he said. I stayed in my seat, but that one phrase was burning a hole in my brain.
He said: The wise men were not there when Jesus was born.
WHAT!?!?!
Guess what? He was right.
The wise men were following a star. Since they were star chart readers, they knew this heavenly alignment marked the beginning of something very significant. It marked the birth of a great king.
A fully loaded camel can travel about 30 miles a day, every day. It took the wise men nearly two years to get to Jesus. If you calculate that distance you will end up with a little over 20,000 miles. If you draw a straight line from Bethlehem to the east at a distance of 20,000 miles, you're in the ocean. So, OK, maybe they didn't travel that many miles, but the point is, they came from a long far away place and if they left the day Jesus was born, it didn't take them 20 minutes to get there.
Also, there were not necessarily three wise men. The reason we refer to there being three is because of the gifts they brought; gold, frankincense and myrrh. If they were wealthy wise men they could have had an entire entourage of assistants and camels. Their arrival probably looked something like a parade and likely caused quite a stir in the community. Not only that, they had access to the political leader of the day, the king. When they found child they were looking for, they found Him at a house. Their arrival marked the beginning of a more sinister time and is the reason why Joseph gathered his family and fled.
Maybe this isn't a big deal to you, but it was earth shattering to me. Why? Because I had spent my entire life believing something that wasn't true. I had just taken someone else's word with out really caring about or searching the facts.
My wise men and camels have set far away from the humble stable setting ever since. I think it would be a good idea if everyone who displays the scene outside, would do the same. If for no other reason than to have someone ask, "Why are the wise men way over there?"
Didn't Jesus say, "if you know the truth, the truth will set you free."?
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