The Sunday after Christmas in the year 2000 I heard a sermon by a minister who was new to our church – a minister I came to respect for his faith in God as we worked together during the following years.  This poem was inspired by that sermon and it changed the way I looked at the nativity forever.  I pray that God will use it to bless you in whatever way He chooses as you read it this Christmas, sixteen years later.

God in a manger

Not just a sweet little baby,

But almighty God.

In a manger.

Lying on straw that irritates and jabs.

Surrounded by animals

Smelly and noisy,

Lying in a cold open cave,

Not the pretty little stable

We see so often.

The entrance is open to the elements,

The wind, the rain, the snow.-

Cold.  Dark.  Unhospitable.

Not a place for a baby –

But this baby is God.

Lying in a manger

And for this Baby, this is the place.

A place so humble, so demeaning

That we cannot understand

What He undertook.

The vast step from heavenly splendour

To human degradation.

Poverty, rejection, even before He was born.

No room at the inn.

No, this is no dear little baby

This is God

Lying in the manger

Humbling Himself that He might be

The ultimate sacrifice,

The perfect gift

The epitomy of love.

For you –

And me –

Our Saviour,

God – in a manger.