What if every Christmas people got together and sung:

"Away in a feeding trough, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head..."

(In vintage High School essay style) Webster's dictionary defines a manger as "a trough or open box in a stable designed to hold feed or fodder for livestock."

The angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son and that "He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever, his Kingdom will never end!" (Luke 1:30-33)

God humbled Himself and became human. He hung out with lepers and sinners and tax collectors, and it all started when He was born in a stable amongst farm animals, using a feeding trough as His bed.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 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. (Luke 2:6-8)

The Prince of Peace slept in a feeding trough on his first night on earth. The savior that billions of people for two thousand years have asked to rearrange their life was born in the lowliest, most humiliating standards of living.

This Christmas we will sing, pray, take communion and listen to a sermon; We will have fellowship, laugh, tell stories, maybe cry a little; We will exchange gifts, watch old movies, stuff our faces with ham and turkey and stuffing, and hang stockings on mantlepieces. And I hope that somewhere in there, I can make the time to reflect on what it means for my life that my Savior began His life in the humblest of settings, that He lived His life as a servant to all people, and that the Son of God brought peace not with a sword, but by dying on a cross.

This Christmas, when I sing, I want to sing as if God Himself were in the room. When I take communion, I want to eat as if God and His Church were sitting down for a meal. When I pray, I want to pray as it God is actually listening. When I listen to a sermon, I want to hear what God Himself is saying. I believe that all of those things are true this week and every week and every minute of every day. One of the reasons I believe them is because this story didn't begin the way other stories of redemption, prosperity and peace begin. It didn't begin with the highest and the mightiest calling down orders from their ivory tower; It began with God Himself coming and serving and going through everything we go through.

I want to see God in the fellowship, in the laughter, in the stories. I even want to search for God in the traditions and rituals we've created for this season (even in the turkey and stuffing if He's there).

And I want to think about the advent themes of joy, peace, hope and love through the eyes of a newborn Savior, born in a feeding trough and praised by shepherds.

Merry Christmas everyone, see you after the holidays!

Labels: Jesus