This year, New Creation Church added our third and final set of "stations," compiling a set of 14 historic paintings telling the story of Christ's birth. These Stations of the Nativity walk worshippers through Jesus' Incarnation, beginning with announcement of John the Baptist's birth to Zechariah and concluding with the return of the Holy Family to Nazareth. 

These stations will be available for prayer and meditation throughout the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany season. We will hold our first Stations of the Nativity service on January 5, 6:30 pm (it will be in-person and broadcast on YouTube and Facebook). Thus far, it has been wonderful to see our folks silently prepare for worship, meditating and pondering over these sacred events using the paintings we've selected. The paintings are "icon-ish," 16" x 16", printed over solid wood through a company called Woodsnap. We used historical, public domain artwork, which my oldest daughter, Lucy, helped me select. 

One way in which the Stations are valuable is that they bring us back to the grit of the Christmas story, as found in Holy Scripture. They remove that fairytale gloss that is liberally shellacked onto Christ's Incarnation by popular culture. This happened in our world, not "once upon a time." Angels invaded our space with the news of Christ's birth, not the kingdom of far, far away! And so, the Christmas story includes things like The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus, as well as the Death of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem. The Stations show us, in panorama form, the true hope found in what Tim Keller called our  now "Hidden Christmas."  That is where the heart of Christmas is to be found, and the Stations put the heart of Christmas on full display for all to see. 

Enjoy a sample of the art presented.