Your Manger Matters

“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.” 

(Luke 2:7)

This morning I was out making a manger for a friend’s Christmas yard decoration. Now whether or not it would be the exact type that Jesus was laid in or what, I don't know, but it's just a decoration, (that's for the people that think way too deep).

While making this manger, I was listening to Pandora Radio on my phone and to get into the Christmas spirit, I had it on the Traditional Christmas station. I love old Christmas songs sung by the greats, and I can't stomach “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” for even a second. LOL 

Nothing feels more Christmassy than constructing a manger with joyful Christmas songs blaring in the background. 

As I was on my knees staining my project, a beloved instrumental came on, “Silent Night” , my brush froze. I froze. I stared at the manger, with one thought on my mind. This is what my King was sleeping in. This was my Savior’s crib. But then I wondered, “What was the guy who built the manger Jesus was laid in thinking when he constructed it?” Probably how mundane the work was. Probably not thinking anything at all other than that the animals needed it to eat out of. 

But then one night maybe he heard some shepherds talking. They seemed very excited and were praising God like he had never heard. They were talking about their experience in the field and how the angels lit up the night sky, giving them the news of  the savior being born in Bethlehem. Then one said, “Can you imagine, the King of the world, the messiah lying in that manger?” He may have said to them in a shocked voice, “What manger? Which stable?” And when they pointed the way, he may have went to see for himself thinking, “Imagine, a feeding trough that I made with my own hands…a crib for the Savior of the world?”

When he was building it he thought it was just a feeding trough for the animals, but God through his hands was building a crib for His Son. 

Remember that the work you do, even when it seems meaningless or like it's menial work, that the man who built the manger may have felt the same. Let all of your work be for Gods glory, no matter the task, because your manger, matters. 

Vern