Nativities from around the world

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 19th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The Nativity! Where I live here in the Midwest this time of year, you can count on seeing images of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus lying in a manger with farm animals all around.

BROWN: Same here in the South where I live, Mary. But an exhibit I visited recently invites us to consider what happened that morning in Judea, through a different lens.

AUDIO: Here’s the baby Jesus!

It’s the most important discovery of the day. Drop-off day, when dozens of artists, designers and collectors unpack…

AUDIO: Ok…Allison is going to get some wooden risers for you…

Uncover…

AUDIO: This is it…we found the garland…

…and unveil their most precious Christmas keepsakes.

AUDIO: Where’s Joseph? Oh, here’s Joseph.

Their nativity scenes.

SWAIN BYRD: My story is, my mother started every grandchild with baby Jesus. So everyone receives the baby Jesus the year they’re born. She’s 84 now and she hopes one day they’ll go in each other’s homes and say, that’s what Mat Mat gave you because I have it, too.

Volunteers like Swain Byrd are helping to transform this 20,000 square foot basketball court at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church into an elegant exhibit hall. About 20 round tables are draped with white table cloths and decorated with fresh greens. Nativity scenes, both homespun and store-bought will be the centerpieces.

AUDIO: [How are you doing…]

Rebecca Dyson is the pastor’s wife at St. Paul’s. She’s also a nativity collector. Nine years ago, she met a woman who fashioned a nativity scene from driftwood. She wondered how many other creative expressions of the birth of Christ were out there?

DYSON: That was when I went to the church, to my husband. And they said we could do it as long as it didn’t cost the church any money.

Dyson and this small army of volunteers began hosting the Come and Behold Him Festival of Nativities. It’s their gift to the community.

DYSON: That’s the thing that makes it great because they’re different nativities every year. It’s not the same set…

Or the same backstory. Margaret Cummins is a first-time exhibitor.

CUMMINS: I was cleaning out my brother’s house after his death and I found this stained glass set that I never knew he had.

Eileen Head grew up in Ireland, but found one of her nativity scenes in France.

HEAD: It almost looks like a cave.

It’s tiny and looks like one half of a boiled egg, with baby Jesus tucked away in the back.

HEAD: And I love that feeling….like everyone is leaning into Him. Feel it.

BROWN: What does it feel like to you?

HEAD: Satin.

BROWN: But it’s made out of…?

HEAD: Salt. In the salt flats of the South of France.

And Debbie Quinn has a nativity set from every city and country she’s visited over the last 20 years.

QUINN: The very first one I got was Mexico City. And it’s got Terra Cotta people sitting on an elephant’s back. This one’s from Russia, and Joseph has a lantern in his hand and then mama is in the traditional Russian attire, the headdress. Argentina is known for more cattle, and so this one is made of leather. This one is from Africa and it’s just made of simple…I don’t know if you can hear that… [Thump] but simple plant material. Every country has their own idea of what the nativity not only should look like but the materials that they can use.

But what happens when we rely solely on our cultural lens to understand the Bible?

I called up someone who’s spent time thinking about that. Mike McGarry was a youth pastor for 20 years. Now he leads a ministry that helps equip leaders serving the next generation. He says interpreting the nativity from a cultural lens is natural but not always accurate.

MCGARRY: And when we hear about the manager and realize the manager was a feeding trough for cattle, we think oh, ok, Jesus was born in an American barn. And that’s just not what Middle Eastern cattle manger scenes look like.

McGarry says Jesus was more likely born in the bottom floor of a house and the trough was probably made of stone. But, he adds, that doesn’t mean we have to throw away our straw manger scenes or images of wise men on the backs of giraffes and elephants, rather than camels.

MCGARRY: If you lose it over putting cats and moose and elephants and giraffes around the nativity, then you’ve kind of lost the plot. Jesus is the plot. Jesus is the big idea. He is the one who we are celebrating.

AUDIO: [Ok, the forms are right over here…]

Back at the church, the last nativity scene is registered. 203 in all, ready to behold.

AUDIO: [O Come All Ye Faithful]

AUDIO: Mama…come look at these ones…

When the exhibit opens the next day, moms and dads like Eric and Audra Naquin remind their little ones to look but not touch.

MYRNA TO MOM: Who did you bring? Who’s here?

NAQUIN: Our sons Alex and Judson. And so I thought it would be cool to come and it’s really amazing, like I like all the different nativities from everywhere around the world. Like it’s just really cool.

Seth Stantons and his teenagers are taking time to learn about the origins of each nativity on display.

STANTONS: What’s fascinating to you about what you see here? All the different ways that they tell the same story. And then all the stories that go with them.

And Sharon Johnson, who grew up in Zimbabwe, says she’s grateful her three girls get to experience the greatest story ever told from the culture she grew up in.

JOHNSON: It’s beautiful just to see the other nations. All the nations, we all look to Jesus.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Daphne, Alabama.

AUDIO: I want to look over here one last time and then we can go…mama… It’s a mouse family…. I think this is my second favorite nativity…un-huh

Photo gallery of some of the Nativities displayed at Come and Behold Him Festival of Nativities at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Daphne, Alabama

Photo by Myrna Brown

Photo by Myrna Brown

Photo by Myrna Brown

Photo by Myrna Brown

Photo by Myrna Brown

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