Stockings and Mangers

It’s Christmas time! This year has been a challenge for many people as it has for our family. We are still sheltering in our home, so ALL our shopping has been done on the web. We use aps for pickup orders for food, animal feed and general things for the home and farm (Home Depot, Tractor Supply, etc.).

Cheryl made stockings for each of our four children when they were born, and each year while our children were growing up, they usually were more excited about their stockings than other gifts. Of course, each item in their stocking was bought especially for them.

This tradition has passed to our 16 grandchildren as Cheryl made a stocking for each of them, and just like their parents, getting their stocking is a Christmas highlight. If the grandkids are not in our home for Christmas, then we make every effort to get the stockings to them for Christmas time. With kids living overseas, it has been challenging over the years to send the packed stockings with someone who was traveling to their area. It may take a few months to get the stockings back to our home, but we have always received them back in time for next Christmas! Some stockings have accumulated a lot of frequent flier miles! This weekend we are celebrating Christmas with Jason and family, so it is stocking time again!

Jason and his family have been in our home for the past two weeks. They spent the first week isolating in the lower level of our home. Then, after a negative COVID test last Saturday, they have been up and about the other two floors, and we have had a great time with them. It is so good to hear grandkids singing Christmas carols all over our home.

My favorite Christmas carol is “Away in a Manger.” I love to hear our grandchildren sing this carol. It is such a simple song with a profound message. It is simple to learn and relatively easy to sing. When the grandkids harmonize while singing this carol, it is just beautiful.

None of the mangers we see during Christmas time are good depictions of the “manger” where Jesus was born. I have visited Bethlehem and seen the supposed site of Jesus’ birth. All I recall is a church built over a dark spot that is supposed to be exactly where Jesus was born. To me it doesn’t matter if we don’t know the exact location. What matters to me is that he was born in a setting where animals lived. Animals ate there, they slept there, and they laid their wastes there.

Our mangers today do not depict the smells of stable droppings and the unsanitary environment of a barn where animals live. Just think, Mary and Joseph laid the baby Jesus in a feeding trough where animals eat and drool.

God chose to have His son born in a stable. The Jews were looking for a Messiah to come who would save the world, but not one whose first bed was a feeding trough. The Jews were looking for a king dressed in royal clothes and surrounded by his court, but they were not expecting a baby born of a virgin whose father was a carpenter. But God chose the perfect place for the perfect Savior of the world—a stable.

As we celebrate let us remember how Jesus came humbly into this world when God could have chosen for Him to come in the most magnificent manner in the universe. From humble beginnings, Jesus lived and died humbly.

Makes me wonder about my life. How humbly is my life lived? Am I completely humble in all my actions?

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2