It Should Have Been Delightful - A Nativity Story

Lars and Marge Antisdel built a huge nativity display in their yard every year for Christmas – and not one of those cheap plastic sets with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus either. They went all out. Their nativity scene included the Holy Family, of course, but they also had sheep and a shaggy donkey, and scruffy shepherds, and singing angels, all crafted out of durable resin in Italy. And Lars had them displayed in a crèche he’d built from distressed lumber and dressed with hay. The whole scene was especially beautiful at night, illuminated as it was with carefully arranged spotlights that gave Jesus, Mary, and Joseph nimbuses of light around their heads like soft haloes of glory. They even hid small speakers in the manger so that folks who drove by could listen to string arrangements of “O Holy Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and other Christmas hymns.

The Antisdel display had been featured on the front page of the local paper. The Herald Examiner sent out a photographer and a reporter for an interview with Lars and Marge. “Come to Bethlehem and See” was the headline of the article.

But this year their display left me disappointed, as beautiful as it was. And this year they’d even added a trio of Wise Men on camels far to the side of the manger scene. It should have been delightful. But it all left me sad because also in their yard was one of those yard signs with the flag of the United States in blue, black, and white and the words: SUPPORT OUR POLICE.

I can’t look at the Antisdel’s display without thinking of Herod’s troops, dispatched to slaughter the children of Bethlehem. I can’t look at the Antisdel’s display without hearing Rachel weeping for her children; she would not be comforted because they are not.