My Favorite Ornaments - Nativity City

When we were first married, we decided that we would collect one new Nativity every year. (Although, I can’t help that some years I couldn’t resist getting a second or third, because they were really unique and I was afraid I might not find them again. You understand, right?) 

So, by the time we began preparing to leave for Costa Rica, we had acquired well upwards of the one-a-year-so-we-should-only-have-17-Nativities. :D

And, although I did bring our ornaments, I could not bring all of our Nativities, so I had to downsize. While I left a few (that I just couldn’t part with) in storage in the US, there were others that I gave away or even sold in yard sales. 

And, while many would not think that would be hard, it was very difficult for me to give up one more thing in my life. And believe me, it wasn’t the Nativities, but an entire life being uprooted and changed. Sometimes, it wasn’t the big things but the minutest of things that would bring moments of remembrance of a life that would cease to exist. 

 The shock of beginning again is hard, and voluntarily giving up your life, what you have always known, to start over in a new place with a new language can be breathtaking, heart-stopping painful.

Please don’t feel sorry for me or my family, because we know Who called us and why and we willingly said, “YES!” But, I think, people get caught up in the excitement and intrigue of moving to another country and they don’t realize the deep impact 

it makes on your mind and heart and life.

But when I compare what I gave up for the life and ministry God has for us here, there is NO comparison. 

The rewards from what we do with our lives here are worth so much more than my lost Nativities. For the lives that are saved here that we will one day see in Heaven...there is nothing that I gave up that would even come close to giving me that same joy and fulfillment!

I shared all this from the deep places of my heart (that I don’t expose very often). I love my Nativities and what they represent, but for everything that we gave up as a family to come here, God saw and knows and He has restored any loss we may have felt with the Joy of His presence and doing His work for His glory!

I am once again collecting Nativities, but now they have a little cultural flair. I do have to be careful of the ones which downplay the Savior for other prominent figures in the Christmas story or the ones that include those who really weren’t there at all. :/

Now the memories are a little different. They are memories of starting over for the right reason, for just a glimpse of what He gave up for us, to come here as a baby (starting over), dwelling among us (definitely a different culture than Heaven) and ultimately giving His life for us (a people so unworthy) to bring us the gift of eternal life. 

Can I not give at least a little of myself back to tell others?

That, my friends, is worth giving up a few Nativities for...