God was in the Manger

Recently we read these quotes (below) from "God is in the Manger", a compilation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Advent Christmas writings. But thanks be to God! Jesus Christ did not stay in the manger. He has been from the manger to the cross, and has risen victorious to the right hand of the Father, and the knowledge of His Lordship will fill the earth far as the curse is found, and His unshakable Kingdom shall have no end. Christmas is a promise fulfilled, and we can be sure that all His other exceedingly great promises will be faithfully kept as well.

While we live in between the Already and the Not Yet, pain is real. But we find comfort that His pain was real too. In all our trials, He was born to be our Friend. Behold our King in a lowly manger! In His name all things will be set right one day, the path to misery will be closed for good, and tears will be wiped away. In our lives, we will be troubled, but fear not, for He has overcome the world. So we can sing, even in a minor key, "Rejoice."


This letter from an imprisoned Bonhoeffer to his fiancee is achingly beautiful, and something to ponder often during Advent and beyond.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Be brave, my dearest Maria, even if this letter is your only token of my love this Christmas-tide. We shall both experience a few dark hours -- why should we disguise that from each other? We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity. We are being subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand. And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives."

-ak

I don't know about you, but I need to be reminded of this more often than not. From the compilation of Puritan devotionals, Voices of the Past.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

This life is not to be valued but as it yields opportunities to glorify
God. We were not sent into the world to live for ourselves, but
for God. If we could make ourselves, then we could live for ourselves.
If we could be our own first cause, then we might be our own end.
But God made us for himself, and sent us into the world for himself.
It is not our duty to glorify God in heaven only, but also here on
earth in the midst of difficulties and temptations. No one is sent into
the world to be idle, or to bring forth fruit to themselves, but God’s
glory must be our chief work and aim while we are here upon earth.
We must not promote merely our own interests. Every man, besides
his general calling, has his own work and course of service where he
might glorify and honour God; ‘I glorified you on earth, having accomplished
the work that you gave me to do’ (John 17:4). In a great
house one has one employment, one another: so God has designed
for every man the work he has to do; some in one calling, and some
in another; but all have their service and work given them for God’s
glory. Every morning we should revive the sense of this upon our
hearts. This day I am going to live with God. When a Christian leaves
home in the morning, he must remember he is at Christ’s disposal;
he is not to do as he pleases, but to be guided by rule, and for God’s
glory. Not only in our duties or immediate conversation with God,
but in our sports, business, and recreation. What is it to do things in
the name of Christ?—But to do it according to Christ’s will and command!
In discharge of this work, we must do it all for God’s glory. We
can do nothing without him. If we have anything to do for God, we
must do it in his own strength, in every word and every deed.

10 January
Thomas Manton, Works, i:81-82

An Everyday Evening

Outside, the sun rolled into his western bed, pulling his vermilion covers with him. The air is mellow and cool, a welcome change from the lingering August heat. The sound of my brothers playing wiffle ball carries in the clear atmosphere. Basket in hand, I step into the old sleepy barn. Hens from their roost scold as I collect their days' work. Eleven. The rooster mildly watches in the semi-dark. G' night, Randall. I lock them safely in for the night. Lungs fill with clean blue calm, stars uncover slowly in the big sky overhead, gravel crunches underfoot. The evening makes my big flannel shirt feel just right. Home lights beckon invitingly, boys laugh in the backyard, Hannah's fiddle sings a song.

For everyday evenings, thank You, Lord.


-ak