Away in a Manger

As Christmas approaches this year, my two-year-old son has been especially fascinated with the manger and Jesus’ birth. Every night we read Jesus’ birth story and sing “Away In A Manger” as he goes to sleep. As sweet as it’s been to watch my son’s excitement and joy in learning about Jesus’ birth, it’s also been a great help to me to think daily on the wonder that it is that Jesus was, in fact, born. 

Sometimes with the most familiar Bible stories, the ones we’ve heard time and time again, the human experience within them can get a bit lost. We can lose the sense of wonder and amazement of what it means that the stories of the Bible actually happened in real life with real people no different than you or me. But this year, I’ve found myself struck by the human experience of it all. And really, how could we not be? It’s the center of the whole Christmas story - Jesus becoming human. 

Reading the story as a mother sitting with my son, I can’t help but think of what it must have been like for Mary. She and Joseph must’ve walked, or possibly used a donkey, to get to Bethlehem. Neither one is a great option at nine-months-pregnant!  Last December, I was nine months pregnant with my almost-one-year-old son. About the last thing I’d want to do at nine months pregnant would be to sit on top of a moving donkey with a huge belly and an aching body, trekking miles and miles across dirt, sand, rocks, and hills. Walking wouldn’t be any easier! I wonder how much Mary needed Joseph’s help? Was it hard for her to keep going?

I wonder what else was going through her mind. It would be her first time giving birth - she must have been anxious and uncertain. I can only imagine that she would have preferred not to have the baby while traveling to Bethlehem, that she would have wished for it to happen at home. If she were home, she would have had what she needed for a baby, along with the help of other women she knew. But what would she do if labor started in an unfamiliar town? Who would help her deliver the baby if the time came? 

And then at some point she knew the time had come, that it was happening, that labor had started. Did she have a moment of panic? Did she trust that God would make a way for her and the Son? She knew she needed a place to labor and deliver her baby. Can you imagine what she felt when there was nowhere for her to go, no room in the inn? 

They ended up in a stable. They were desperate at that point. I’m sure she never thought she’d find herself there to deliver her promised child into the world. The children’s books with the smiling cows and the cute nativity sets have made the manger scene a bit glamorized for many - glorious, yes, but glamorous, by no means. There were animals. There was dirt, feces, a stench. At our hospitals today, newborn babies are placed in a completely sterile bassinet - not a dirty feeding trough for barn animals. But, nonetheless, in that manger was laid our great King Jesus, who was “made like us in every way,” as Hebrews 2:17 says, and took our humanity upon himself. 

Among all the glorious things that Jesus’ birth means for us, one thing it displays is God’s faithfulness. He had promised this child, the Messiah, not only to Mary and Joseph, but to His people throughout time. And he delivered on his promise. Through what looked like lowly, maybe confusing, definitely undesirable circumstances around Jesus’ birth, God was faithfully and perfectly carrying out his promise. Exactly according to His will, Jesus was born in the stable in Bethlehem.

And a little over 30 years later, exactly according to His will, Jesus was crucified on the cross. Mary watched her son die. Not just any son, but the promised Son. And not just any death, but death on a Roman cross. What did she think then? What agony she would have felt. How much more the agony of the Son who cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. Jesus willingly suffered as God faithfully carried out His plan for salvation for all who would believe. 

And it started with a new mom laying her baby in a manger, in a stable where animals lived, with the dirt and smell, the blood and sweat, the fear and joy – all the realities of the human experience. And the Messiah was born. This advent season,

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬).