25 Days of Christmas: Nativity story is a drama retold each year in Vancleave
Stories pass down the ages in words, music, paintings and now videos, yet a story that occurred 2,000 years ago with a birth in a stable in Bethlehem is often told with a Nativity set.
The scene is recounted each year with Nativities in front yards, homes, churches and offices.
About 10 years ago, Jimmy and Marjy Goff began their version of an interactive Nativity scene along Poticaw Bayou Road in Vancleave.
"When are you going to put it out?" his neighbors and friends begin asking around Thanksgiving.
The Goffs' yard becomes a stage; at the center is a stable Jimmy Goff made and Mary and Joseph are in the distance. Each day the pair move a little closer to the crèche.
To the east, a shepherd watches over a sheep and to the west come three Wise Men, also moving toward the stable and destiny.
"I try to keep it simple," Jimmy Goff said, "because it was a simple birth."
He moves the figurines most every day leading up to Christmas Eve, when the Goffs light 150 luminaries leading Mary and Joseph to the stable beneath the star.
At midnight on Christmas, he goes out and places baby Jesus in the manger to complete the story.
One theory of the arrival of the Wise Men in Bethlehem put them at the stable two years after Jesus' birth, Goff said, and another suggests they saw the star two years before and started on their way. Goff said because there are two different beliefs, he decided to include them in the scene.
"People stop by and take pictures," he said.
Now, 2,000 years later, the story still causes controversy. Harrison County supervisors on Monday are expected to discuss a letter they received objecting to a Nativity on display at the county courthouse in Gulfport.
Coast residents are talking about what the county's response to the letter should be as they unpack their own Nativity, which each year reminds us of the story that ends with "and on earth peace, good will toward men."
This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 9:32 PM with the headline "25 Days of Christmas: Nativity story is a drama retold each year in Vancleave ."