I'm getting the nativity scene ready; preparing the area for the manger/stable tableau. It's a daunting task, made that much more difficult this year since we've moved and NOTHING is where I thought it was. The decorations for the tree are in amongst the cable and wiring things for my husband's shop. The craft supplies are sorted, but I notice that there are some boxes of Legos which seemed to have suspiciously found their way into the crafting corner. The lights for the tree are mixed in with the lights around the doorway which are also blobbed into the corner with the sewing supplies.
We are not untidy people by nature, the hubby and I. I labeled all the boxes before the actual move and even went so far as to indicate where the boxes were to go. But somewhere along the way, well, things went a little haywire. And well, we'll probably be sorting from now until next Advent.
So the nativity things are mostly in a large container with a small one and they ARE labeled. I scrounged around the basement yesterday, muttering under my breath. Watching an occasional centipede scurry out from behind a box or a stray cricket hop about in hysterics trying not to be seen (okay, guys, how's that working out for you??). I found the smaller box, but not the big one. How is that possible? The smaller one has the animals and the peripheral things which help to "set the mood". Things like the water jugs by the well. And the pretend bedrolls which I have no doubt Joseph and Mary brought with them in the off chance there would not be another place to lay their head. Mary probably wouldn't have lost stuff. She probably didn't have that much stuff to lose, in all honesty. But I know she didn't label everything before riding on the donkey to Bethlehem. I'm annoyed by this minor annoyance and yet, how much more were the first family (and I don't mean the president) were inconvenienced? We know the story, but they lived it. We can't even imagine having the cows, sheep and donkey breathing on their newborn because, I mean, where else could they have gone?
So, really I guess for now, I'll put up the stuff I did find and wonder about the rest of the stuff. And stop and think once again about how this miraculous baby came into this world without a "nativity set" or modern plumbing and heating. And how it really didn't matter at all that he didn't have those things, because, well, he came for people, not things.
Yeah, I gotta remember that...