Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Community Service (sort of . . . . )

If you haven't already, or if you want to again, please check out my last post HERE and leave a comment.



So I have this idea of how to serve my community during this Christmas holiday. See most people don’t realize something very important about their Nativity scenes. They’re WRONG.

I’m taking it upon myself to help all the people in my town by correcting this error. My plan is to go from house to house (late at night because then it will be a surprise in the morning) and do a little rearranging.

Now what is wrong with the Nativity scenes you may be asking? Well, take a look at the Gospels, right there in the first few chapters and try and find the error that Nativity scenes promote. Hmmmm, found it yet? Ok, I’ll help you out. See the wise men, magi, men from the Far East (take your pick of names) didn’t get to Jesus until a while after he was born. And we’re not talking hours here, or even days, it was more like years.

Most people don’t realize this, and I don’t hold it against them, but I’m all for having a correct Nativity scene. So my plan is to move the wise men down a few yards so that all the people who drive around looking at Christmas lights will see that they are a good couple of years away from the stable and newborn baby Jesus.

So that’s my plan. I’m equipped with all black clothing and my night vision goggles, because I do want this to be a surprise to these families. Just think how excited they’ll be when they awake tomorrow morning to see that their Nativity scene has been adjusted and is now correct with the wise men gone. Maybe I’ll leave a little note telling them which yard I left the wise men in or will that take away the fun of looking for their approach and wondering which way they came (duh from the east – ohhh I’ll need to pack a compass then so I get the direction right).

My only concern is that the cops who come to arrest me for trespassing and vandalism won’t know the Christmas story and it will be really hard to flip through my Bible while my hands are handcuffed behind my back so I’m thinking I’ll type out the gospel account of the wise men and tape it to my shirt.

So that’s my plan for tonight. Anyone want to do the same act of community service in their town? It could be a coordinated event and we could synchronize our watches (I love synchronizing watches). Just let me know.

17 Comments:

Blogger Stephanie said...

Yep. It's official. Girl... you are CRAZY. lol!

This was GREAT! I didn't know that about the nativity, but now that you bring it up: what's with that?

Well, I'm all for synchronizing. Just say when. I'm all over it.

12/13/2005 11:56 AM  
Blogger Larissa said...

While you're out correcting nativity scenes, could you also do something about all the blond-haired, blue-eyed baby Jesuses out there? That would be great.

12/13/2005 12:06 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

You're a nut. A sincere nut...

But I do agree with you, though that the wise men came a few years after Jesus was born.

Before you go correcting nativity scenes in your town, let's be happy that there ARE publicly displayed nativity scenes at all, even if they are incorrect. There seems to be an outcry of sorts against any expression of Christianity these days. Hmmm - didn't the Bible predict such a thing?

Now all we need to do is move Christmas to the correct time of year to match the actual season that Jesus was born. I'm not sure when that is, but it's not really in December. That I know....

12/13/2005 12:16 PM  
Blogger amelia said...

You should do this and get someone to video it...I can totally see this being a video that shows up everywhere on the internet!!

12/13/2005 12:39 PM  
Blogger steve said...

Arent they "Holiday Scenes" this year? Isnt it "that Baby" and not JESUS? Lets get it correct...

I would hate to offend any of the folks that like to partake in the gift giving...

12/13/2005 1:30 PM  
Blogger Greg said...

Hey yah nerd... I knew that as well.

Count me in. ;)

12/13/2005 3:29 PM  
Blogger Katie said...

Ben - I assumed you would know that because you are a fellow nerd, but he question is: Are your wise men all the way across the room from your nativity scene in your house?

12/13/2005 3:53 PM  
Blogger Jenny said...

Anytime that watch-synchronization is called for, you can count me IN. I LOVE IT!

Tell me when. Tell me where. And I am sooo there sister!

12/13/2005 4:09 PM  
Blogger Aim Claim said...

idea... instead of making the wise men far away, how bout making baby Jesus 3. Then everyone could be together. So was the star floating in the sky over Jesus for like 3 years too?

12/13/2005 5:23 PM  
Blogger Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Sounds like a good plan Katie!

It's interesting too that there is always 3 of these wisemen/magi. Other than in the song, which came long AFTER the fact...where on earth (or should I say in the Bible) does it tell how many there were?

You also remind me of one of my profs who is on a mission to get rid of all depictions of the Last Supper because they are wrong too. Jesus and His disciples would not be sitting up at a table eating. They should actually be in a reclining position around the table on all four sides, reaching into the middle where the table would be with the food on it.

12/13/2005 7:52 PM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

Logan!

Thanks for sharing that: I have a friend who won't celebrate Christmas, and I couldn't for the life of me remember why...

Now I know!

12/14/2005 8:27 AM  
Blogger Katie said...

oh come on Logan, we all know you are one of those holiday grumpypusses (hahahahahaha, I don't know if I just made up that word or heard it somehere before and it came to me from the bowels of my memory).

If we're being technical and all, I want to point out that technically this post was supposed to be HUMOROUS but funny how things take a turn and some good convo on the point of Christmas, Nativity Scenes, and such came up

Oh well, when I'm sitting in jail for my antics of wisemen moving I will ponder all of your deep thoughts (that and the fact that Logan celebrates Christmas in June and Easter in October)

12/14/2005 10:09 AM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

Logan: never said you don't celebrate! lol

All I was saying, was that a friend of mine presented that very argument awhile back as the basis for the reason HE doesn't celebrate Christmas. I just forgot what that reason was until you presented those facts.

That's all :)

12/14/2005 11:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't Happy Holiday the same as saying Happy Holy-day?

12/14/2005 11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Katie

Hey. I'm the same guy that tried to send an e-mail to you yesterday. Not sure how that worked but it only let me write 300 characters--I got frustrated and I think what I ultimately sent didn't make much sense.

Sorry. At any rate, I don't know any of your friends. I found your friend Jess's site and then wound up reading yours as well. I thought it was pretty cool. Basically I spent more time then I would've guessed reading the two blogs last night. And I decided I'd write and say 'hey'. I couldn't find an actual e-mail address so I tonight I'd just post a comment.

At any rate, I really enjoyed your posts. I've got a couple of questions for you but first I should tell you a bit about myself. I'm from Missouri--I live in Columbia. I'm 30. I work for the state health dept doing programming and statistical work. I'm in the health statistics section. I really like geography!

So I figured some stuff out reading your posts. Like you live in the Dallas area. I think you might be a school teacher. Your church/faith is very important to you. But I had a couple questions: What do you teach--assuming I'm right about the teaching bit? Do you follow sports much? What denomination of church do you attend? And what's up with that audio track? I also tried the video links but couldn't get them to work.

Really, I just wanted to write and say that I liked your blog. You should have my e-mail address so you can write me back if you like.

I liked this blog entry about the 3 wisemen. I was familiar with the story that they may have come to visit when Jesus was around 2. Of course, they would've been back to Nazareth by then and not Bethlehem.

Merry Christmas!

--Andrew

12/19/2005 7:15 PM  
Blogger Katie said...

Hey Andrew - Thanks for stopping by, new visitors are always welcome. Sorry, but I'm not sure where your email ended up but it wasn't in my inbox. In fact, I don't have an email link on here, never got around to doing that, so I'm a bit confused where you might have emailed to. I'll add an email addy to my profile tomorrow sometime, if you get a chance to check back you can email me there.

12/19/2005 11:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey. I feel kind of silly. I figured out what I did. This is
embarrasing and shows that I'm clearly only semi-Internet savy. I clicked on the envelope button that shows up next to all the posts. So, I somehow thought I was sending you an e-mail. And I knew it was asking for two e-mail addresses but the whole thing just didn't click. At any rate, when it sent me an e-mail with my message I thought the form was just copying me on what I had sent you. Now I understand that I was
essentially sending myself a message that included a link to that particular post.

So no, I see now that you didn't get that initial e-mail. Oh well....

I'm guessing you didn't add your e-mail anywhere yet, but it's certainly possible that I just couldn't find it!

12/20/2005 10:45 PM  

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