Don’t Leave the Baby in the Manger

"And she gave birth to her first-born, a son. She wrapped him in clothe and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." - Luke 2:7

Everybody loves babies. Commuters in crowded airports, shoppers on a street corner, even hardnosed businessmen who seldom break into a smile, always stop to enjoy a baby.

But babies don’t stay babies for long. Innocence begins to fade about the time that school starts, and all too soon a youngster learns that life is not as kind as his mother.

There is a funny thing about Christmas and the Babe of Bethlehem. We are more comfortable keeping Him in the crib than recognizing that the Babe grew to childhood, then to maturity and then went to the cross and died at the hands of the Romans. We are more comfortable remembering the pastoral setting of a stable in Bethlehem than thinking of Him kicking over tables in the Temple or rebuking the religious leaders of the day for their hypocrisy.

It is no helpless, sleeping Babe of whom John wrote in the book of Revelation, "His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one but he himself knows...Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations...He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh eh has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (Revelation 19:12, 15, 16).

In the prologue of his Gospel, John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" (John 1:1-5I).

Don’t keep the Babe in the manger. Let Him enter your life, your home, your thinking, your business, your relationships, your very soul. Let Him touch your lives with His presence, not simply this month but every day of your lives. Don’t leave the Baby in the manger. Take Him with you.

Resource Reading: Luke 2:1-7