Other than the usual bedecked and belighted pine trees (either real but mostly fake) and lanterns (parol), the nativity scene is perhaps the most popular of decorations during Christmas season. You see them at home, in the malls, in the park, inside churches and sometimes on television and movies.

Almost 800 years have past since the first idea of a nativity scene was conceived (by Saint Francis of Assisi) and it's been adapted in various ways -- sometimes irreverently but mostly artistically.

The essence of the first visit may have been lost to most of us, and only in last Friday's sermon did I realise a personal meaning to it. Someone asked me: who were the first visitors of the Holy Family that night Jesus was born? The shepherds! (Contrary to most nativity scenes on display today, the three magi's didn't visit Jesus and Mary until after two years. Read Matthew 2:8-10).

So what's the first gift did Jesus receive that night?

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:20).

Praise and glory - those were the first gifts, and I suppose this Christmas, it would be the best gifts we could give Christ on His birthday.

In today's reading of John, there is another gift that I believe God would want to receive from us this Christmas: come as a witness to the light.

Has God done you great favors during 2011? Tell the world!

Has God blessed you and your family abundantly this 2011? Tell the world!

Prayers: May we, like John, come as a witness for You so that, through our personal stories, all might believe that one night, many, many years ago, in the simplest means conceivable, You came.