More Than a Nativity Scene: Christmas in God’s Story of Redemption

For many, the nativity is an isolated scene in the biblical story, more familiar as holiday décor than as Holy Scripture. It’s like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle bearing the partial image of a baby in a manger: Few seem to know where it fits into the picture of the Bible’s commands and promises, let alone human history. Instead, it has been framed on its own, sentimentalized as a moral lesson about feeding the homeless, putting coins in the red kettle, and just trying to make a difference—“because, after all, isn’t giving and working together what Christmas is all about?”