One of Lord Herndon’s students invited us to meet him and his family at his church to see a collection of creches (nativities). For the last few years, this church has asked its congregation and the community to contribute their nativities for a viewing in the weeks before Christmas. Many of the nativities were very traditional, but they also had a nice variety of ethnic nativities from around the world, as well as some other forms of presentation, such as cross-stitch and even chocolate! Here were a few of our favorites:
Afterward, we went outside with a cup of hot chocolate to watch a real-life reenactment of the Christmas story. The audience was really quietly watching the Wise Men come to worship the newborn King when Princess pointed and declared at the top of her lungs, “Baby Jesus!” Everyone turned to us and smiled.
As we were leaving, Lord Herndon and I commented to each other that we didn’t see any Kyrgyz or Turkish nativities there. I’m not making any commitments yet about participating next year, because despite the nativities, this was not a Christian church.
