Away In A Manager

Much earlier this month, I got to meet and hold a baby less than 24 hours old. It was terrifying. He seemed so small and fragile. His loudest cry barely turned a head because his lungs weren’t yet big enough to wail. He was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but mostly soft and tiny and helpless.

I was incredibly content to look at him. Who knew what would happen if I held him? Suddenly everything in the room and on my person resembled a potentially harmful weapon that could wound this little life in a split second.

This little boy was the son of my coworker Stacy. His name is Zachary and his arrival was much anticipated. Zachary was their first, and Stacy did everything she could to nurture his growth while he slowly developed within her.

She and her husband made every preparation for his entry into the world- touring the hospital, attending childbirth classes, decorating the nursery, looking up baby food recipes, getting his car seat approved, buying onesies, baby blankets, socks and hats. This little man didn’t know how good he had it when he took his first breath out of the womb.

In the midst of Advent season, God had me meet a little boy to help me meditate on the baby boy of the Christmas story. Marveling at little Zachary (and the Christmas card picture still propped up on my kitchen table), I still can’t believe Jesus donned the flesh of a helpless infant. Moreover, he didn’t have the relatively plush life that Zachary does, but rather endured real poverty, rejection, and homelessness as a newborn while embodying joy, hope, love, and peace in their purest forms.

The story of the child in a manager and his life on earth is the ultimate story of humility, for the God of heaven and earth condescended Himself into the form of an infant. The longer I think of the Christ child, the more clearly I see my own pride and sense of entitlement in contrast. Thus, during this Christmas season, I’ve asked Jesus to teach me His humility and am trusting He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself... Philippians 2:5-8