Someone handed out these stories along with a small Nativity set, one piece for each day, twelve days of Christmas.
The very last piece you give is the baby Jesus, but he had no saying.
I think the Angel needs a little saying about Angels.
They were printed in all different type of font, on cute Christmas paper with pictures of the story.
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Mary
Picture in your mind Mary, young, a virgin, described in scripture as “Most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (1 Nephi 11:15), “a precious and chosen vessel” (Alma 7:10), “Blessed … among women (Luke 1:2. This is what we know of Mary, but Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained, “We cannot but think that the Father would choose the greatest female spirit to be the mother of his Son, even as he chose the male spirit like unto him to be the Savior”. When the angel appeared to Mary, “she was troubled” (Luke 1:29). Can you imagine? Troubled is probably an understatement. Here was an angel…an angel…speaking directly to her…about a matter that perplexed her.
Nevertheless, she listened to the angel as he taught her about Jesus and her role in brining Him into mortality. When she had been taught by the angel, she believed, and she submitted herself to her calling. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:3. And with her cousin Elisabeth, Mary rejoiced: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Savior…For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-47, 49). When Mary heard and believed and when she submitted, her troubled mind was put to rest.
Joseph
What would it be like to walk with Joseph? Joseph was “a just man” (Matthew 1:19). I would think he must have been led by the Spirit to love Mary, in order that Jesus would have an exemplary, just, and devoted earthly upbringing. If Mary was as good as the scriptures say, it probably wasn’t hard for Joseph to love her. But Joseph, too, experienced deep anxiety after learning of Mary’s pregnancy. He must have been disappointed, even devastated.
How should he respond? Would he, as was customary, chastise her publicly? Or would he just quietly break the engagement? As he “thought on these things”, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and explained to him that Mary had conceived “of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20). This beautiful young girl to whom he was engaged would be the mother of the Savior of the world. He
should not be afraid to marry her, because she was indeed still a virgin, worthy of his love. Joseph listened, heeded the angel’s counsel, and “took unto him his wife” (Matthew 1:24). When Joseph believed and submitted, he was at rest.
The donkey is next
Mary’s Journey
The black and silver sky bends over us like the dome of a shining temple. Far in the East a lone star gleams with a peculiar intensity. I watch it as Joseph adjusts the pack on this donkey.
“We must hurry if we are to be off before day breaks,” he says. It will be a long journey to Bethlehem where Joseph must pay his tax. Five, even six days. What I fear most is that my child may be born on the cold, lonely road. My time is so very near.
As Joseph lifts me upon the donkey’s back, I cannot ignore the sudden rush of fears. The donkey’s hoofs ring hollow on the cobbled street. Oh stop! I want to cry out. Let me remain here in my safe bed. Here, where I can deliver this child while surrounded by my mother and my aunts,. But Joseph and I plod on, silent shadow in the fading night moving as though in a dream.
At the edge of Nazareth where the stone street gives way to dirt, I turn and look back. Some how I know that nothing will ever be the same again…the journey has begun.
I watch Joseph’s sure hand tug the little donkey forward into the darkness. I am struck by the simple thought, Are we not led by God as surely as Joseph leads the donkey? Now the sound of the donkey’s hoofs on the road does not seem as lonely, nor does the dark distance seem as ready to swallow us up. This is not a journey of uncertainly, it is a journey of faith.
Then the stable
The Stable
Think about Bethlehem. Think of the busy streets filled with people trying to find a place to stay for the night. Joseph and Mary have finally made it to this little Judeans town, but where can they stay?
Inside, the inn buzzed with laughter and chatter. Distant relatives who had not seen each other in years renewed family ties over bowls of hot soup and goblets of wine. They broke bread together, swapping stories of their journeys. A teenage boy strummed his lyre in the corner, and several fathers clapped their hands in time to the music.
In the rush to serve tables, the innkeeper, balancing a tray of breads and meats answered a knock at the door. A man calling himself Joseph stood outside. He and his young wife needed a room. A glance told the innkeeper the woman was heavy with child. He could barely hear himself talk with so much noise behind him, but he managed to explain that there was no room, only an empty stall in the stable out back.
Shrugging his shoulders, the innkeeper quickly apologized and went into the crowded room. Outside, Joseph stood for a moment, listening to the laughter inside. Back in the stillness of the night, Mary waited. The young couple made their way to the stable. And while music and laughter and feasting went on and on, just yards away behind the walls of the inn, the Son of God quietly
entered mortality.
Sometimes the best moments of the Christmas season do not happen during the crowded parties or the rush of holiday preparations. They don’t occur in the music and laughter, the camaraderie and feasting.
Special Christmas memories are those quiet moments when God unexpectedly surprises us. With Himself. With an overwhelming sense of His nearness and love.
In the midst of so much activity, so much going on, so many days in the calendar filled with appointments or parties. God seeks out the quiet heart, and speaks to us in a still small voice.
Think of the stable in Bethlehem. Somehow it stands serene. What a contrast to the celebrating going on in that inn. Who would have supposed? Who would have suspected? If someone had only dropped what he was doing to leave the party and go check on his donkey. If someone had only slipped away from the festivities for a moment to seek a quiet moment outside.
Just think of what they might have witnessed! Perhaps they would have seen the angels. Maybe the shepherds. And yes, even the Son of God.
Take the time this Christmas season to step outside the clamor and excitement. Visit the stable and ask God to speak to you in the quiet and serenity and stillness
He will!!!
Then the Oxen
The Oxen
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock
“Now they are all on their knees”,
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearth side ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their straw pen
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,
“In the lonely Barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know”,
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
Then the sheep
Little lambs so meek and mild
Followed your shepherd to Bethlehem
Blessed, you see the newborn child
Jesus. The Savior of all Men
Then the Shepherd
When the angel of the Lord came upon the shepherds “Keeping watch over their flock by night…they were sore afraid” (Luke 2:8-9). It seems that angelic visitations must have quite an effect when they appear suddenly. Sore afraid. Don’t you imagine that sore afraid means more than nervous or uncomfortable?
How would you have felt? I suspect they were terrified. But then the angel delivered the good tidings, the joyful message, that the Savior, Christ the Lord, had been born. They listened and must have believed, because they decided they must go “with haste” to see Baby Jesus (Luke 2:16). When they had seen Him, they didn’t just quietly return to their flocks…they shared what they had seen and heard (verse 17). They must have made quite an impression, because “all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds” (verse 1
Yes, when the shepherds listened and believed their fear was put to rest. They came unto Christ. Then they shared this new truth.
The three wiseman
Somewhere east of Jerusalem were wise men, Magi, whom the Bible Dictionary identifies as “righteous men sent on an errand to witness the presence of the Son of God on the earth”. We don’t know how many came, but tradition assumes three because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We know that if they were sent as witnesses, there must have of necessity been two or three. “Their spiritual capacity is evident: They were able to see the star when others could not; they knew its meaning, and brought
gifts…Their knowledge was precise and accurate. It seems likely that they were representatives of a branch of the Lord’s people…led by the Spirit, to behold the Song of God, and who returned to their people to bear witness that the King Immanuel had indeed been born in the flesh. Imagine that we are accompanying the Wise men on their journey. What happened to them when they came unto Christ? Since they were already believers, they probably feared neither the star nor the journey and its purpose. But in their search
they inquired of King Herold, “Where is the child that is born, the Messiah of the Jews? Herold’s request that they return after finding the child was superseded by God’s warning in a dream that they should not return to Herold. So after they had found the child and worshiped Him and presented their gifts Luke records that they “departed into their own country another way”. They too, heeded God’s words.
Now, we know the warning to take another route home was to save the life of the child Jesus. But we like to think that after coming to Christ, departing “another way” could mean they departed changed men. With their testimonies of the Savior confirmed, they were, perhaps, now at rest concerning the future, joyfully optimistic, and ready to move forward with confidence to lead others in their own country to Christ. Perhaps their rest was that they would be better, kinder, more humble. More generous, more patient, more forgiving, more loving.
Wiseman 2
The First Noel
This star drew nigh to the north-west
O’er Bethlehem it took its rest.
And there it did both stop and stay
Right over the Place where Jesus lay.
Then entered in those wise men three
Fell reverently upon their knee
And offered there in his presence
Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.
Wiseman 3
We three Kings of Orient Are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
Melchior: Born a babe on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again;
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign.
Caspar: Frankincense to offer have I’
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising all men raising,
Worship Him, God on High.
Balthasar: Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
Glorious now behold Him arise,
King and God and Sacrifice;
Heaven sings “Hallelujah”!
“Hallelujah”! Earth replies.
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to the perfect light.
The next to the last story I have doesn’t really fit the angel but here it is:
Where are the lambs…
Who first saw the star?
You have the donkey…
That traveled far!
This is the ox…
In the stable he lay
They were all there on that
first Christmas Day!
The very last piece you give is the baby Jesus, but he had no saying, you will have to be creative, which I am not.
I think the Angel needs a little saying about Angels.
They were printed in all different type of font, on cute Christmas paper with pictures of the story.
I know that Deseret Book has the cutest resin mini nativity
12 piece set that we are going to use.
