"Minute Messages" - Word for Life World Ministries

Link: http://wordforlife.com/b2e/blog1.php/2011/12/28/set-design-stable-manger

Set Design: Stable, Manger

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Scripture Focus: Hebrews 4:14-16

God sent every angel in heaven to announce the birth of Jesus, then made His first home in this world a cowshed with a feeding trough for a cradle. The first throne for the miraculously conceived baby, Christ the Lord, was a manger. It held the King of the entire universe; it was made of wood from a tree He created. If it perplexes you and me, how strange it must have seemed to Mary and Joseph. These lowly circumstances foreshadowed much in Jesus' life that would challenge the assumptions of what a king should have. But despite the pathetic accommodations, God exalted Him to the highest place so that at His name every knee might bow (See Philippians 2:9-10.).

The first knees to bow may have been those of Mary and Joseph. Mary placed him in a manger, Luke tells us (2:7). Why? Wouldn't she and Joseph want to just hold Him? The awe of God's everlasting promise being fulfilled so intimately gave Mary pause...perhaps she stepped back to worship. May we also bend our knees to worship the Christ child.

Insight: In the humiliation of cloths, manger and stable, He was available and close at hand to shepherds, to Mary and Joseph, to us.