The Heart of the Manger

For Thanksgiving this year, we had some out of town guests come to see us. This set Mindi on a cleaning spree. Almost anything sets her off on a cleaning spree, but out of town guests really get her fired up. Our house is beautiful and inviting at all times, but nothing gets the house spic and span clean like guests.

We actually had 12 months to get ready for these guests. They come see us every year around Thanksgiving. Even though our house is comfortably clean at all times, we rarely start preparing for our friends’ arrival until a few days before they come.

Once the cleaning process gets started, it’s on! Clean sheets put on the bed. Every floor surface vacuumed, mopped, and/or swept. Bathroom linens changed to ‘guest linens’. Rooms put in order and all objects restored to their rightful place.

We did this for friends that we see regularly that we had a year to get ready for. What would we do if someone really important people were coming (our friends are important, but you know what I mean!)? Some dignitary or royalty? Some celebrity or sports’ figure that my kids love? What would the house look like then? What would we clean up? How would we prepare?

Thank God that when he came to be among us he came to a dirty stable. Even though it was prophesied that he was coming specifically to Bethlehem (Micah 5:1-2) the town wasn’t ready for him, so in his great plan he went to a stable to be born.

How dirty was that stable? How bad did it smell? How many animals were kept there? What had those animals done in there?

As I’m getting ready to speak to our church family this Sunday and I’m thinking about Christmas, I was thinking about all of this. It lead me to be thankful to God that he came to that unprepared, dirty, stinky stable. I’m glad he came through the messy, smelly, painful birthing process. I’m glad he came as a baby in this flesh- babies are cute and soft and precious, but they are also loud, smelly, and messy.

I’m thankful for all of this because it reveals that God can live in my heart. My stinky, filthy, messy, dirty unprepared heart.

Thank God for Christmas in a dirty manger. Thank God for Christ tonight who lives in my ill-prepared heart. Thank God that he doesn’t ask me to be clean and ready before he comes to me. Thank God that he tells me he’s coming again and gives me plenty of time to get ready (Matthew 25:1-13).

The heart of the manger is that the manger represents my heart. My dirty, unprepared heart that needs the Messiah put into it to make it holy and clean and a place of wonder and grace.