It’s all wrong! The manger scene is inaccurate. Yes, there might have been sheep and shepherds. There was probably even a donkey and that ass was probably very tempted to kick the kid with the drum set. What about the wise men who let everyone know that they were so “wise” that they didn’t need to ask for directions (and showed up a couple of years later)? Sure, let’s throw them in. Mary, Joseph, and little baby Jesus, yep all there (although the real 8lb six ounce baby Jesus with his golden fleece diapers probably had a better tan than the baby in my manger)! So what’s the issue you ask? The lie of the manger scene is that everyone is awake! Let me present you three incontrovertible real life examples that prove this could not have happened:
Numero Uno
One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories was our Christmas Eve tradition. As kids we got to open one gift before the big day. My default was to always grab the biggest present with my name on it. The only thing bigger than the present was my excited eyes…until inevitably the present I chose to open was replaced along with a strong suggestion from my Mom of, “why don’t you open THIS one instead.” It was, of course, another lame sweater that I had to wear that night because didn’t I want to look nice to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus? Of course I did, but did Jesus really want me to be itchy all night? All I really cared about was getting over to my aunt and uncle’s house for a big ham dinner, Christmas music, and to see how many See’s candies I had to bite into (and then put back in the box- cherries… gross!) until I found one I liked. Anyway we’d play games, tell jokes, and have fun until late in the night and then just like that, we had to rush off to the dreaded midnight mass (note to any Catholics who read this, please don’t be offended as I was a kid up way past his bedtime in an itchy sweater and Santa wouldn’t come until I sat through a church service at midnight). There was a technicality though, I just had to be there, nobody said I had to stay awake. I slept through EVERY ONE OF THEM. Which was fine as a little kid, but before I move on let me tell you about my older brother Paul. One time when staying at a hotel he got a call in the middle of the night, “hey buddy, I’m sorry to bug you, but I’m in the room next to you and I have a really important day tomorrow. Is there any way you could turn over, put a pillow over your face, or something? Anything??? Your snoring is awful!” Through the wall and in a completely different hotel room. Yeah… so that brother Paul would be as excited about the midnight mass as me, and he would spend the whole service snoring along with me.
Numero Dos
Another brother and more preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus (well technically, for the arrival of Santa…and we were going to catch him this year)! My brothers and I had the bright idea of sleeping in the living room so we could catch Santa as he came down the chimney. As I was struggling to stay awake, I decided to sneak into the kitchen to check to see if there were any new presents under the tree. Holy smokes! There was a brand new bicycle that hadn’t been there when I went to bed. I was so excited and couldn’t believe I was getting a new bike until I saw my little brother’s name on it. “Maybe I interrupted Santa in the act and if I just went back to bed, there would be one for me too” I thought. Sure enough, not five minutes later I heard what could only have been the sound of air going into a tire. Yes! I waited what felt like an hour but was probably about two minutes for Santa to finish putting the air into my new bike. I couldn’t wait anymore so I tiptoed back into the kitchen to see that same stupid bike with my stupid little brother’s name on it. I was so confused but then realized that I just heard the air sound again. I followed my ears to find my brother Michael sound asleep and snoring away. So that noise could only have been the air going into a tire OR air coming out of my sound asleep brother!
Numero Tres
“If you fall asleep, I will kill you!” This was what was called a credible threat. Those words were said to me by my own wife, who is usually kind and loving, but at that moment was in labor and exhausted. She just wanted to get a little rest before the birth of our last daughter and did NOT want me to fall asleep before she did to ensure my snoring wouldn’t keep her awake. What??? I was insulted even as she reminded me that was exactly what happened with the others. How dare she??? I mean, what kind of man did she think zzz…
I rest my case. Literally. We are asleep. The manger needs to be updated. We are celebrating the arrival of our Savior and we are out of it. God doesn’t change. That little baby who left his Kingdom in Heaven to be born among the barn animals, still wants to have a relationship with us. Instead of really preparing for the celebration of his birth, we are still out of it. Sure maybe our eyes open and we aren’t snoring, but we are definitely not awake. We are on our phones. We are glued to our TV’s. “What God you want to spend time with me? Just a second while I watch one more TikTok video. ” We still have four more days to prepare our hearts for the baby whose birth changed history, let’s wake up!
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