Thanks to a family in the church, Jessica and I were able to borrow and finally watch “The Nativity Story” on DVD tonight to bring in the Christmas-holiday!
It was very fitting that at 12AM Christmas morning Jesus had literally JUST been birthed by Mary in the stable. Jess exclaimed, “it’s 12:01” just as Joseph lifted Jesus up into the air and gave his hearty-laugh!
The movie was great! We both enjoyed the Mary-Joseph storyline. We were, of course, quick to point out some of the inconsistencies with the Biblical narrative as we’ve come to memorize and act-out our entire lives. The wisemen showing up at the stable, them returning via “a different route” on their own accord, and other ‘mistakes’ gave us opportunity for ‘I knew they’d do that’ glances throughout the movie.
One scene I really enjoyed was the palm-reader-lady that gave Mary some sort of food while they were en-route to Bethlehem. She “read her palm” somewhat exlaiming something about the Baby inside and then her true-colors showed as she exclaimed to Joseph something like, “There’s nothing better than seeing your face in one younger” – identifying her as a false-source of future-telling. I liked that.
It has been told to us on more-than-one occasion that the Wisemen provide the “comic relief” of the film – and they did live up to that standard. I loved THEIR worship of Jesus almost as much as the Shepherds – both showed genuine ‘awe’ as worshipers.
I’m glad we chose to finally watch this film as the minutes changed from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.
