Our neighborhood here in Southern Utah is very into its Christmas lights. Most of the town isn't really as gung ho as our neighbors are, because this is a college town and most of the students have headed home for the holidays.
I have photographs coming of the more "elaborate" displays within walking distance.
The other day I passed this little nativity scene and wondered if Max Von Sydow wasn't right in the Woody Allen film, Hanna and Her Sisters when he said "If Jesus came back today, he'd never stop throwing up."
I guess that's sort of a cruel way of asking the question: Does Jesus like kitsch of himself and his parents and his birthday? Does he feel any nostalgia for those grand days of the Renaissance when images of him were actually good?
Or does he think that displays like this one are more democratic and less classist than a Titian or Giotto? Better that everyone have an illuminated, plastic Wal-Mart display of his birth than none at all.
Or does he think, "I told them about graven images. I've told them and told them and told them and told them"?