It began in a manger

And I happened in a most remarkable moment...a moment like no other.  Four through that segment of time a spectacular thing occurred.

God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in the human womb.

The omnipotent, in one instant, became flesh and blood.  The one who was larger than the universe became a microscopic embryo.  And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. 

God came near.

He came not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter.  Mary and Joseph were anything but royal.  Yet heaven entrusted it's greatest treasure to these simple parents.  It began in a manger, this momentous moment in time.  He looked anything but a king.  His face, prudish and red.  His cry still the helpless and piercing cry of a dependent baby.

Majesty in the midst of the mundane.  Holiness I. The filth of sheep manure and sweat.  This baby had overseen the universe.  These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity.  His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen.  And worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds.  

Curious, this royal throne room.  No tapestries covering the windows. No velvet garments on the courtiers.  No golden scepter or glittering crown. Curious, the sounds in the court.  Cows munching, hooves crunching, a mother humming, a babe nursing.

It could have begun anywhere, the story of the king.  But, curiously, it began In a manger.  Step into the doorway, peek through the window.  

He is here!

Max lucado