A few days ago, I read my little boys the Christmas story from their new Bible. They listened carefully as I read the story, then without warning my youngest left the room. He quickly returned with the baby Jesus from the Little People Nativity set we had just set out. Then my older boy ran to get Mary and Joseph. But that was still not enough. They ran and retrieved each individual piece, complete with the animals. I just wish I had my video camera going. It was so cute to watch them retell the story.

Have you ever heard the Chrismas story as told by a three and five year old? It sounded like this...

"You are going to have a baby!" said the angel.
"But I'm not married..." said Mary.
"That's okay. Don't be afraid and name him Jesus," said the angel.
"Marry her," said the angel.
"Okay I will," said Joseph.
Then Mary and Joseph rode a long way on the donkey to go pay money. They rode the donkey until they found a zookeeper, oh, I mean an innkeeper.
"Can we stay in your hotel," said Joseph.
"No, I don't have any room for you, but you can have my barn," said the hotel guy. 
Yuck! We wouldn't want to sleep in the barn and never take a baby in a barn.
So then they went to the barn and baby Jesus was born.
"Go see the baby in the manger," said the angel.
A manger is not a bed it is like a box where you feed animals and it has lots of yucky slobber and stuff on it. Yuck!
And the shepherds ran and ran and ran until they saw the manger.
Then the angel told the three little people, I mean the wise guys about the baby. And the wise guys ran and ran and ran to see the baby.
They wanted to see the baby because he was a king. The end.

I was quite impressed with their retelling. Then I asked a few questions. "Why were all the animals there?"
Without skipping a beat, my youngest son responded, "Because they loved Jesus too!"
"Well, maybe," I responded.
Before I could continue, my older son stated quite confidently, "Well the pigs don't love Jesus!"
"Why do you think the pigs don't love Jesus?" I asked a bit confused.
"Well, do you see a pig here?" he responded.
"No," I added. Come to think of it, I don't believe I've ever seen a nativity scene with a pig! "You can add a pig if you'd like, We have plastic pigs down in the playroom."
"NO!" he said with surprise, "then there would be mud in our story!"
"Well, I think the animals were there because they lived in the barn, but maybe they did love Jesus too."

"Why was this baby so special?" I asked, curious if they would remember what we had pieced together over time.
"Because he's Jesus!" they shouted with joy.
"And what would he grow up and do?" I asked again.
I could tell that very minute that the reality had sunken in. They looked at the baby lying in the manger and then looked up at me with eyes wide open.
"He would die on the cross...and save us from our sins." They said in unison.
Then my tenderhearted youngest looked up at me and said, "I bet that made his mommy really sad that her baby would get big and then die on a cross."

The whole nativity story with my sons was very eye opening. I think as we celebrate Christmas year after year we get so familiar with the story that we take it for granted. Do we really stop and appreciate all the details that make it so unique? So many of the details were God's touch on a miraculous birth. This Christmas, I really want to remember the true reason for the season, complete with all the details that make it even more meaningful. Have you ever thought about the nativity story from a child's perspective? Maybe it would change your view of the Christmas story.