“May God give you peace with yourselves; may He give you good will towards all your friends, your enemies, and your neighbors; and may He give you grace to give glory to God in the highest.” —C.H. Spurgeon
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-2, 14, NIV)
God showed up in a feed trough.
The Messiah’s birth was more Little House on the Prairie than Downton Abbey. He was not born in a palace as you might expect for royalty, but in an animal shelter with a feed trough as His bed. As Mary gently cared for her newborn baby, smells of manure, wood chips, and dirt filled the room. Sounds of cows chomping on their food, sheep bleating aimlessly, and townspeople bustling about before daybreak likely echoed in the background. Picture this young mother tenderly consoling the infant-God as his tiny cheek pressed against her shoulder and neck, all the while surrounded by dirty sheep, donkeys, and oxen. God enters the world like this.
This kind of Messianic entrance is surely not what the Jewish people expected. What they anticipated resembled what they knew of the mighty King Solomon. Solomon, the famous king of Israel, was “greater in riches” than all the other kings of the earth. His days in power were the glory days of Israel. In those days, they stood on top of the world.
“This kind of Messianic entrance is surely not what the Jewish people expected.”
Solomon was enormously wealthy. We read about him: “The king made a throne covered with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. . . . All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold” (2 Chronicles 9:13-20, NIV). With Solomon’s gold-covered palace in mind, the Jewish people likely reminisced about him when the prophets spoke of the coming Messiah. Perhaps they thought, ‘Get ready, goldsmiths, because you’re about to get really busy . . . here comes the Messiah!’
But in a mammoth plot twist, the Messiah showed up not in a gold-plated palace, but in a dirt-filled stable. Philip Yancey commented, “The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenage couple for food, shelter, and love.”
Peering into the stable, seeing the feed trough, imagining the smells and the sounds remind us that God does not need exquisite goblets or a golden throne to radiate His glorious presence. The full weight of His glory came amid the smells, sounds, and sights of the stable.
“The full weight of His glory came amid the smells, sounds, and sights of the stable.”
The Creator of the world became a fetus with tiny organs, limbs, bones, muscles, and facial features developing within Mary’s womb. The Creator became the creation. He was fed, comforted, cleaned up, and rocked. In God coming near, His glory was visible up close and personal.
In most world religions, followers must strain and struggle to achieve closeness to a god or deity. In Christianity, however, God came to us. He closed the gap by entering our world and revealing His glory right in the middle of everyday life. This Christmas, I encourage you to step into the stable and observe the delivery room of the Son of God. Meditate on what you smell, see, and hear. Then, reflect on what the manner of Jesus’ birth teaches you about God.
If God’s glory can appear in an animal stall in Bethlehem, it can appear anywhere. So, keep your eyes open for His glory today!
Father, thank you for revealing who you are to us through your Son born in Bethlehem. That your glory filled a dingy animal stall in the backwoods community of Bethlehem shows you can reveal your glory anywhere. Give me eyes to see your glory radiating all around me. Prepare my heart to create room for Jesus so that He can reign within me forever as my King…all to your glory! Amen.
Excerpted from Rob Long, O Come Let Us Adore Him: 31 Christmas Devotionals to Find Meaning in the Manger.