Away in a Manger

Luke 2:1,4 It was about that same time that Augustus Caesar sent out an order to all people in the countries that were under Roman rule. The order said that everyone’s name must be put on a list … So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea.

Christmas inevitably comes with a lot of trappings these days. Tinsel, trees, baubles, lights … in fact, when you think about it, the way we celebrate Christmas couldn’t be any further from the circumstances of that very first Christmas.

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

Pretty familiar, I guess, to most of us. Perhaps Away in a Manger brings back some happy memories of childhood. And yet it speaks of a harsh reality; a child born in a smelly stable with cows and sheep – the stench of dung and urine, cold, hard, uncomfortable … but the place that the Father chose for His Son.

Chances are that if you or I were God, we wouldn’t have chosen that place – a place not unlike some of the harsh realities that we sometimes face.

We wouldn’t have chosen those circumstances – a poor, young couple from Nazareth on a journey to meet the requirements of the Roman Emperor, stuck between a rock and a hard place in finding accommodation just when their child, the Saviour of the world, was due to slip into our world.

No, we wouldn’t have chosen that at all. But God did. In His great and mighty heart, He conceived and hatched a plan that speaks volumes. God is with us … right where we’re at.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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