Christmas and time for a New Cradle

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

They laid Him in a manger!

Jesus came from the majesty filled with heavenly splendour to a manger filled with a bed of straw. From an open vastness of the Trinity’s dwelling place. To tiny confines of a wooden box manger in a stable.

The Incarnation is incredible, it is also undeniable. The manger marches across history yet still remains in the dark shadows of the original stable and the shadows of our minds.

The invasion, the intrusion of divinity into the heaving masses of humanity is totally breathtaking and yet for those people who believe its actuality it is life giving. It is pure heavenly oxygen.

The manger is magnificent in its plainness, ordinariness and nothingness.

It stands in the shadows of a common stable in Bethlehem, like a throne of shimmering light greater than the throne in Herod’s palace in Jerusalem.  Role reversal is realized.   

The message of the manger defies wisdom and understanding generally speaking yet it defines the divine purpose and the measure of Divine love.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

There is an answer here for any question that might be asked .

A Child is born and the cry of the baby would quickly become the battle cry in his fight for supremacy and right to save his people from their sin.

The Lord Jesus Christ came to win the fight not to lose the fight for his love was to prove utterly deadly in its fulfilment. He was to slice a path of truth in a world poisoned with lies and deceit. The saviour would level the field of life, - uneven for so many people and give them the possibility of standing on a level field of faith enabling each person to see by guiding the eye to a cruel cross and beyond to the horizons of heaven.

He would draw straight lines in crooked places. Silencing the self righteousness and would make timid troubled sinners shout for joy.

This Christmas time let us give Him a new cradle of a warm loving heart from which He can make a new beginning. Come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room for you – today.

30/11/2007