Should Your Nativity Have a Red Dragon?

When I was a little girl, my aunt made us a nativity set. Every year it came out of storage to remind us of the story of Christ’s birth. It was plush, soft, and familiar, with rosy-pink blush painted on each character’s cheeks. My brother and I carefully unwrapped every bundle in hopes we might be the one to find sweet baby Jesus, our favorite piece.

The nativity spent the Christmas season resting on our living room’s bookshelf. Baby Jesus snuggled in his bed of hay while the angel watched from the shelf above. Camels and cows lay down next to sheep in order to witness the prophesied birth.

As a privately schooled third grader, I memorized the entire story of Christ’s birth from Luke chapter 2. Many days after school, I would come home and act out the story in the same way I acted out stories with my dolls. Joseph and his new bride would make their long journey, and the shepherds would be awakened by singing. Mary would sit quietly and meekly as she pondered everything in her heart.

It wasn’t until college that I learned our nativity scene was missing a character. Sure, the set from my aunt included a camel, three wise men, an angel, and shepherds. Mary and Joseph were always at the front and center of the display. There was a cute baby Jesus and all his props—the swaddling clothes, hay, and cardboard manger.

One day, my professor asked his students to retell the apostle John’s version of Jesus’ birth. I wasn’t familiar with this telling. I immediately turned to John’s gospel in my Bible, but he seemed to skip over Jesus’ birthday story. I was confused until the professor directed us to one of the other books of the Bible John had penned: Revelation.

Revelation 12:1-5

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

John doesn’t even mention the sweet and cuddly lambs. He spends his time describing a scary red dragon. How could this be the same story?

My professor explained that John’s version is not a retelling of what happened in Bethlehem on that dark night two thousand years ago; instead, Revelation describes what happened in heaven the same night. Satan, the red dragon, was present as the Savior of the world was born. The dragon had full intentions of overpowering Christ from the beginning, but God snatched up his son and protected him from evil.

Satan was present again thirty-three years later as Jesus hung on the cross. I can imagine the red dragon prowling behind the crowds, waiting to devour Christ. But once again, God snatched up his Son and protected him. Then God did something that would prevent the dragon from ever again attempting to overpower Jesus—he raised his Son from the dead. On that day, the red dragon was defeated once and for all.

This year, I bought a plastic, red dragon to include in my nativity. It has a grotesque appearance, with beady eyes and sizable horns. It stands in stark contrast to the darling stuffed characters my aunt made, but it serves as a reminder of what was happening in heaven the day Christ was born.

I will teach my children to reenact Luke’s version of Jesus’ birthday, and I will also teach them that evil was present that day. [Tweet “We don’t have to fear the red dragon; we know how the story ends.”] On resurrection day, God overpowered the red dragon and defeated him forever. This, Jesus’ triumph over our sins on the cross and the promise of eternal life with him, is as much worth celebrating as his birth.

Will you consider adding a red dragon to your nativity this year?

At home, Ginger Newingham is in charge of wiping noses, wiping bottoms, wiping mouths, and wiping off the table (with different rags, of course!). She and her husband live in Athens, IL with their three children – a Bulgarian, a biological son, and a Latvian. Ginger blogs at ourmomentsdefined.com about living intentionally while raising two adopted sons with special needs.

Photograph by KelseyVere.