Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Eleventh Christmas Day
Luke 2:12 And this will be a sign to you, you will find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.
AWAY IN A MANGER
During this Christmastide I've spent some time considering the gospel nuggets embedded in Christmas carols familiar since childhood. Like "Mild He leaves His throne on high, Born that man no more may die" (from "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!") or "Come from on high to me, I cannot rise to thee" (from "Good Christian Men, Rejoice"). This is a good idea since the full meaning of songs learned by rote at an early age may not come clear -- even in later years -- without a fresh and/or closer look.
For example, for years I mentally sang a comma after "light" in the third stanza of "Silent Night" making "love's pure light" a name for Jesus and leaving one to wonder what it was that "radiant beams from His holy face."
Now, ask people in your home in what sense the first word of "Away in a Manger" is to be understood. The simple word "away" has multiple meanings.
Is the baby Jesus "not for immediate use" as in "tucked away"? We know that can't be. And we surely are not to take "away" in the sense of "out of existence" ("fade away") or something that is "to be removed" (as in "clear away"). Rather, in this familiar Christmas song isn't the word "away" used of something "put in its proper place" (as in "put the equipment away" or "file the letter away")?
And how could a common feed-trough be the proper place for the Son of God come into human flesh? Answer: When the manger is used by God Himself to direct the first worshipers of the Christ to His make-shift bed. When our loving God uses a feed-trough as an indicator that the event reported is a fact of history -- then that manger is indeed the right and proper place for the Babe of Bethlehem. He who has come to seek and to save the lost must be identified beyond a shadow of a doubt -- for in Him we are to place our complete trust. 