The Manger and the Cross

December 29

The manger and the cross are two unlikely symbols for the religion that offers hope to man in a woebegone, dreary world that is steeped in disappointment and overcome with darkness. The disappointment is in virtually everything that once inspired us to believe life is good. The darkness is of our own making, for we are immersed in the quicksand of sin that has sucked us ever deeper into the lawless quagmire we’ve created for ourselves.

We want to believe our institutions will still come up with the new invention or the new marketing scheme that will enable industry to rise out of its slump and move forward. We want to trust that our governmental leaders will succeed through innovative programs to instill confidence in us once again…but time passes and the only thing that rises is the national debt.

In desperation, we look for a place to anchor our hope for the future and we reflect upon the message of Christmas—that the Babe of Bethlehem came to give us not only hope, but also peace (Luke 2:14). We think of the Child who was born to a woman of royal blood (Luke 3:31) but whose own circumstances were humble. We think of the manger where she placed her new-born Son, and somehow we see that although it was a feeding trowel for animals, hewn of rough boards, when graced with the presence of the Babe, it has the power to lift our spirit to hope.

And the cross, emblem of torture and death, two rough, splintered boards fashioned for the sole purpose of bringing a man to a painful demise, when sprinkled with the blood of Heaven’s perfect Lamb (Revelation 13:8) becomes a beacon of light in a dreary economy, in a dismal moral abyss, in a desperate life of despair. The cross takes on the glorious light of heaven when Heaven’s Glorious Light (John 1:9, 10) is sacrificed there; and through His laying down of Himself upon that awful tree, we who are dead in sin and disappointment and loss are resurrected to new life and hope.