THURSDAY 24th
Luke 2:1-7
(v7) ‘And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.’
Well, today is Christmas eve, the eve before the birth of the child. Mary and Joseph had made the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and we need to remember it wasn’t a nice comfortable journey in a car, suitcases packed and put in the boot, driving along with the radio playing some music and chatting away about their upbringing and the reason why they were having to make the journey in the first place, because of the Roman census.
It was probably a mixture of walking and riding on a donkey, jolting up and down, no heating to keep warm, no radio to listen to, not even easy to hold a conversation. In fact you couldn’t have blamed Mary for thinking ‘What on earth is this all about, why do we have to go to all this bother, why couldn’t we have filled out a census and sent it by post’
But go they did, and it must have been late by the time they arrived as there was no room in the inn, it would have been busy and all booked up, and so they end up in a stable with probably the other travellers donkeys for company.
What a miserable night it was going to be, trying to get comfortable on the itchy straw, and even worse for Mary, pregnant, even more difficult to get comfortable, the smell of the donkey breath, the stench of the donkey pooh, and the noise of all the hustle and bustle, what a night it was going to be for them – and actually what a night it was, for it says, ‘She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.’ Wow, no maternity hospital, no comfortable bed, no midwife, but then this was no ordinary birth, it was an extraordinary birth, and although he was born to be King, before that he was born to be the Saviour, so not time yet for the palace, he had come to pick up men and woman from the horrible stench of sin, from the muck and mire of sin, from the smelly breath of the devil, and so he was born in poverty, born in the most lowly of circumstances to signify that he had come for the lowest of the low, he had come for sinners, he had come for you, he had come for me.
And there as he lay in the manger, this child born, who was also the Son given would have cried out like any other baby would have done amongst the mess of the stable, but more importantly the day was going to come when he would cry out once again, not in a stable but on the bloodied mess of a Cross, crying out, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’, as he would take upon himself your sin, my sin, to bring us redemption.
Away in a manger
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Lay down His sweet head
The stars in the sky
Look down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay
The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes
I love Thee, Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side
‘Til morning is nigh
Be near me, Lord Jesus
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me, I pray
Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And take us to Heaven
To live with Thee there