Tuesday, Day 17: "Away in a Manger"

For Kids: 

Where we live, when a baby is born, it is usually in a hospital. 

Hospitals are very clean, and everything is done to make sure the baby can be born so that everything can be good.

When Jesus was born, he wasn’t born in a hospital.  

No, he wasn’t even born in a house.  

He was born in a barn!! 

The story of Jesus’ birth is in God’s word. 

Luke 2:1-7
¹  At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire.
²  (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
³  All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census.
⁴  And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.
⁵  He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.
⁶  And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.
⁷  She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, a village that Joseph had grown up in.  Mary was very pregnant…ready to give birth.  And that is exactly was happened. 

When they arrived in Bethlehem they couldn’t find any place to stay.  All the rooms were already filled. 

The innkeeper told them they could have a place in the barn where the animals were kept.

Cows, sheep, chickens, even horses, are animals that often live in barns.

Now Mary was ready to have her child, and in that barn, Jesus was born.

Mary and Joseph must have been very happy that everything went well.  It wasn’t a hospital.  It wasn’t even a nice room in a house.  It was a barn, and they laid Jesus in a manger – which was a wooden thing that the animals ate from.  

There’s a song that talks about Jesus’ birth in a manger.

You might already know how to sing it, but here is the song on a video that you can listen to and sing along with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v8vBmbGlis

Away in a manger,
no crib for His bed,
the little Lord Jesus
lay down his sweet head.
the stars in the sky
looked down where He lay
the little Lord Jesus,
asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing,
the poor Baby awakes,
The little Lord Jesus,
no crying He makes;
I love Thee, Lord Jesus,
look down from the sky
And stay by my side
till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay,
Close by me forever,
and love me, I pray!
Bless all the dear children
in Thy tender care
And take us to heaven,
to Live with Thee there.

Here’s a page with a manger you can color 

For Parents and Other Not Kids:

The story of Christ’s birth demonstrates the way in which God loves humility.

Joseph and Mary had their first-born baby in a manger…a cow stall.

The nativity scenes all portray the “lowing” of the animals that surround a small rectangular box with hay to surround the baby. They always seem to conjure up images of peace, tranquility and joy. 

Nativity scenes include often shepherds and the magi, but it’s clear in comparing Luke 2 and Matthew 2 that the magi are not visitors to the manger since Mary and Joseph are in their house by the time they make their visit.

The nativity scene goes back to 1223 and the work of Francis of Assisi who constructed the first one (we know of) outside of his church in Italy.

He chose to do this as a teaching tool and brought the nativity alive with people and animals.

The emergence of this model spread and by the end of the middle ages much of Europe was using nativity scenes which – like stained glass windows – told the story visually to a population largely illiterate. For children, and perhaps adults, nativity scenes can still serve to visually stir the imaginations of that evening 2000+ years ago. 

But, it’s more than the nativity that draws me to wonder at this scene.

God, the God of the universe, creator, author of faith and life…this God comes to us in the most commonly of ways.

God entered our world, not in glorious displays of grandeur, but in the way of weakness, commonness, earthiness, humility.

This is a birth with all of its beauty and joy, it is also filled with pain and what one man once described as “the yuckies”.

Why?

The world around us does not understand this “way” of God.
We don’t understand the ways of God!

This vulnerability, weakness is not the efficient, powerful, glorious explosion of God’s power were used to portraying.

Brennan Manning wrote a classic entitled – “Shipwrecked at the stable”. He writes about this vulnerability and weakness that makes our meditation on God’s ways more complete:

“We all know how difficult it is to receive anything from someone who has all the answers, who is completely cool, utterly unafraid, needing nothing and in control of every situation. We feel unnecessary, unrelated to this paragon. So God comes as a new born baby, giving us a chance to love him, making us feel that we have something to give him…the infant Jesus was born in unimpressive circumstances, no one can exactly say where. His parents were of no social significance whatsoever, and his chosen welcoming committee were all turkeys, losers, and dirt poor shepherds. But in his weakness and poverty the shipwrecked at the stable would come to know the love of God.”

It’s an interesting phrase:  “The Shipwrecked at the Stable”.  Think about it…

The shipwrecked at the stable know their weakness and stripped of all control they simply cling to God’s grace.

The shipwrecked at the table come to be possessed by God, not to possess replacement of material goods as idols in his place.

The shipwrecked at the stable seek the peace of Christ over the noise and flurry of activity that the world uses to hide its emptiness and pain.

The shipwrecked at the stable know that Christmas is God’s gift of himself…nothing more, nothing less and that this is enough.

Don’t lose sight of the nativity as a place of weakness, vulnerability and a display of the “way” of God.

Go ahead, have that cookie, exchange presents, go caroling, give to the poor, attend a candle light service, call your distant family and friends…do it all, and do it in the name of Jesus.

But no matter what you do, be captivated by joy and wonder…be overwhelmed by God’s “unmighty” display. 

Peace