Merry Christmas! I saw a wonderful meme on Instagram recently that made me chuckle. The picture was of a manger and the caption said: The first king sized bed. Of course that got me pondering  the manger and what all it really is.

The definition of a manger, according to Merriam-Webster is, “a trough or open box in a stable designed to hold feed or fodder for livestock.” It could have been made out of rough timber or even stone back in Jesus’ day. Basically, it was a “table” where animals eat. Jesus came to be the bread of life to us and we come to the table of the Lord each week to consume the Eucharist. I don’t think that is a coincidence. 

Speaking of coming to the Lord’s table, the manger was the first altar, the first place where Jesus was worshiped as the Son of God by Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men. What if a church replaced their altar with a manger, how would we react? Would we be indignant at being treated as if we were animals? Or would we see the depth of humility God illustrated in becoming Man to suffer, die, and be resurrected to bring us to salvation?

When the Ark of the Covenant was in the Temple in Jerusalem, it contained the Mercy seat, the place where God would appear to Moses. I think it could be considered a throne, as God gave lawful direction from there. However, I would say the manger is the first throne of God to have a visible Person on it. As an infant, I don’t think Jesus was sitting on it, but it was where he received the wise men who came to pay homage to the newborn king. The wise men logically first visited the palace, only to find out He was not there. When they came to the crude loggings, what must have been going through their minds? Or were they so awed by the site, that the beauty of God-becoming-Man overwhelmed them and was all their focus on the baby Jesus?

As the Instagram meme right labeled the manger, it was also a bed, or a crib if you want to be more specific. It was a safe place to lay the baby Jesus down, because of its container-like structure, He would not roll off and fall, nor would He roll around on the earth. It most likely was filled with hay, which if you ever felt it, would be one of the last materials you would want for bedding. Even the animals would get straw, which is not much better. It was probably rather prickly to the soft and sensitive newborn skin. It may have been tempered by a few layers of cloth to make it feel not quite so pinchy, but it would need quite a number of layers to make it truly comfortable. 

The manger is a table, an altar, a throne, and a bed. It’s one of the most memorable pieces of “furniture” (if you can call it that) in history. Yet it’s where the Son of God chose to rest His head for the first weeks or months of His life. In His first lesson to us, Jesus illustrates how God chooses the humble to teach the proud. We may all be sinners, but Jesus has a purpose for each one of us: no matter who we are, what we’ve done (or not done), or how far away we may think we are from Him…even the smallest, most seemingly inconsequential things, like a manger, are not beyond His gaze.

Let us spend some time this Christmas season to look upon the Christ child as He lay in the manger and ask Him to direct our thoughts, words, and actions to help others find their way to Him, as the angels did for the shepherds and the star for the wise men.