Meet the Nativity is a time-traveling romantic comedy in which 21st- and 1st-century Christmases magically collide.
Episode 2, released today, introduces Claire, who’s in for a surprise. (You can watch Episode 1 here.)
Bright Future
Meet Claire. She has everything going for her and everything planned out for the future. She’s young, smart, attractive, and full of potential. It’s nearly Christmas (yay!) and her adorable boyfriend, Will, is meeting her darling Daddy for the first time. She’s even started to get along with her stepmother.
Claire’s the type who has her favorite Christmas movies (plus appropriate festive treats) lined up for each day of the holidays. She’s bought (and wrapped) ideal gifts for others, and her Amazon wishlist has been in her Twitter bio since the start of November. Will is without excuse.
For Claire, the present is calm, and the future is bright.
Unexpected Christmas Present
But then comes her surprise. And if there’s one thing people like Claire don’t appreciate, it’s surprises. It throws everything into a spin, and suddenly she has as many doubts and fears as she had hopes and plans.
It’s odd that even though Christmas is on the same day each year—and some people have their tree up in October—it’s actually the ultimate interruption.
It’s odd that even though Christmas is on the same day each year—and some people have their tree up in October—it’s actually the ultimate interruption. It’s a person who bursts into the room waving a flag, riding a lion, and playing a trumpet; everything we’d planned that morning will have to wait. Christmas says there’s something we haven’t foreseen and haven’t taken into account; there’s something that didn’t make it into our color-coded spreadsheet. Except, of course, that Christmas is far more real than our plans for our future. If anything, it’s our plans for success-without-interruption that exist in the realm of fantasy.
Unexpected Christmas Past
When Claire meets the Nativity, Mary tells her, “Life is what we’re given.” You’ll struggle to find the phrase in the Bible, but it’s a fair point. The most famous woman in history didn’t exactly mastermind her celebrity. And so for people like Claire—the up-and-coming types, full of plans, dreams, and strategies—Christmas says something revolutionary: Don’t worry, it’s not down to you. The world isn’t waiting for you to execute your master plan; but as we meet the Nativity, we’re invited into a far better one.
In Luke 1:38, Mary’s actual great line is delivered to the angel Gabriel: “Let it be to me according to your word.” Those three little words “let it be” can be scary, but if they’re said while trusting the God at the heart of the nativity, they’re the liberating truth that life really is what we’re given. And at Christmas we’re given the life-giving One himself. The greatest interruption of all.
No doubt you have plans for Christmas, but this year discover that Christmas has plans for you.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
