This Christmas season, I've set up an unusual, private nativity display which I'm eager to describe for you. It features several photographs of tiny babies born at the Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. Two photos are of triplets. I notice their spindly legs, the size of a finger. Some photos include mothers in colourful saris. Joy is radiating from their faces. In all these photos, the babies are held in the arms of an expatriate nurse, a dear friend who has kept me in touch through her many letters and pictures over the decades.

I credit my unusual nativity idea to St. Francis of Assisi. This thirteenth-century monk used a lowly rural setting with animals as a visual aid illustrating the lowly situation of Christ's birth. That got me thinking: What visual aid can I make that serves the same purpose, that shows how Christ came to earth identifying with lowly humanity?

Philippians 2:6-7 – Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, [Christ] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (NIV 2011)

For me, the tiny babies in these photographs illustrate that truth. Here I see Christ, through His followers, touching vulnerable new lives. These infants weren't laid in a manger, but in incubators in a modernly equipped hospital. Their mothers may have had high-risk pregnancies or some other complication. Here they receive a better chance of survival.

The vision and growth of this mission hospital is described in autobiographies that I've also displayed. The book, Daktar, by Viggo Olsen M.D., is summarized on Amazon as "an enthralling account of a brilliant surgeon skilled in diplomacy". Here we read about the tumultuous birthing of the nation, Bangladesh. We gain an appreciation for the sacrificial work done to alleviate poverty and suffering.

My display includes hand-crafted items gifted to me over the years, mostly made by women in the Widows group that my friend began, herself a widow. This Widows fellowship was formed to help restore dignity to widows who, through losing their husbands, also lost their social status and became outcasts.

These widows remind me of the shepherds near Bethlehem who were also considered outcasts. Yet, they were the first to receive the exciting announcement of Christ's birth. They heard the angels praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14b NIV 2011)

The widows, mothers, and babies featured in my display are visual aids of this promise, for they are experiencing God's favour resting on them. Like the shepherds, these are ones spreading the good news among their people. They are humble displays of His glory.

This Christmas season, let's do our best to see the Christmas story through new eyes, such as theirs, and not be distracted by distressing news of current world events.

Prayer: Lord, our peaceful trust in You is so easily robbed by the anxious noise of strife and catastrophe. Revive our hope through the displays of Your glory shining through the darkness. Amen.

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About the author:

Diane Eaton <dianeeaton6@gmail.com>
Paisley, Ontario, Canada
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