In a Manger, December 14, 2016 Daily Reflection

Nativity

Nativity

Modest, humility, and humbleness are not qualities that are aspired to in our American culture. We are all about confidence, over achievers, being number one, and outstanding in all that we do. So, how did the savior of the world choose to enter the world? As a baby, vulnerable, born to an unwed mother, to poor parents, in a humble manager, a wooden location from which animals ate. God choose to be humble, although he is not the highest human being but the creator of all humanity. God is not an overachiever, he is the alpha and the omega, there was nothing before him and every living creator came from him. He can change the universe in a single breath. He choose to come to the world with humility, in the lowest ranking position in society. He came to the outcasts, the sinners,  and those who were shunned by the “religious” of the time.

Why was he born in a manager? If God wanted to reconcile all of humanity back to himself a human was needed but not just another prophet leading the way, not a great moral leader among many. Instead God became man – 100% human, 100% divine. To cry as a baby, laugh as a child, feel anger as an adult, feel betrayal from a friend, weep for the death of others, and abandoned by his father before his death, he had to feel our pain, joy, and sorrow so we could relate completely to God our Father. The manager was the necessary symbol to bring us to our God.

We should each humble ourselves to God. Open our hearts to the outcast. Reach our hands out to God and return to his friendship. This is the time to reconcile the sinner to God, Advent is the time, the manager is the way. Perhaps, that is why he was laid in a manager.

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