Wednesday, December 24

Scripture: This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:12).

Observation: The angels pay a visit to shepherds minding their own business. The angels have a message to deliver. “Shepherds, here are the breadcrumbs you could follow if you want to find your new King.” The angels don’t command the shepherds to get up and go. Instead, they simply lay the breadcrumbs before the shepherds and expect them to follow. 

The shepherds are told to look in “the city of David” (that must be Bethlehem, where King David was born) and search for a child “wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” The bands of cloth are rags. Picture strips of an old t-shirt repurposed for scrubbing the toilet. Joseph had nothing else to keep his child warm except rags ripped from wadded up laundry.

Then there’s the manger. The manger is an animal’s feeding trough. Jesus has to lie in a manger because none of Joseph’s relatives in Bethlehem would make room for him and Mary. Imagine it- Mary is in active labor and Joseph must be out of his mind with panic, and his cousins show them the door. Luke tells us three times in the nativity story that Mary had to place Jesus in a manger. Mangers could be found in the caves around Bethlehem. The shepherds would bring their sheep to these caves so the sheep could feed from the troughs. That means Mary probably gives birth to Jesus in a cave, and when the angels tell the shepherds to find Jesus lying in a manger, all the shepherds had to do was knock on the cave next door. There they find a baby who looks like one of their own babies. Here is a God who is so deeply with them, so committed to being on their team, so in solidarity with them, that God even looks like them. 

Application: God is that sort of present with me, because God has that sort of love for me. God is Emmanuel, God with us. Why the “with?” God is with us because of God’s amazing love for all people. God’s intentions for me, and for the entire world, is love. Just love. That which drives God on the inside to do what God does on the outside is love. 

Prayer:

God, I’ve heard it said that love came down at Christmas.

That’s true, and more breathtaking is why you do it.

In the manger, filthy with sheep spit,

Lies a baby defenseless and homeless,

Bundled in strips from his father’s t-shirt to keep him

Warm from the bitter cold of his family’s apathy and

The cruelty of people like me who have better things to do than

Show ordinary kindness.

I look into the manger and there are your good intentions,

Your drive on the inside for what you are doing on the outside:

It was love all along.

Love came down, that’s true, and love was always there.

What came down is a love I can begin to understand.

What I always had was a love before I believed in it-

   A love unlimited by my lack of loving.

What more is there for me to do at Christmas than to

Receive the good intentions of the Soul of the universe?

I look into the manger and choose to receive

   Love chosen for me.