Welcome to "Fan the Flame" Friday.
This is a weekly post that will be "short and sweet" (kinda like me...)
Just a word and a phrase, a sentence or a question...just a little something to "fan the flame" of your creativity!
Today's word: manger
How do you picture the manger in your mind?
Why do you think God chose a manger as the place for His Son to be born?
Let me know what you think!!
"This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you…For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:6-7)
(SIDENOTE: For some reason, my blog is taking a VERY LONG TIME to load for me since Sunday. Are any of you having this trouble with my blog? I'm on Safari, by the way. GRRR...)
BLOG = "Blessedly Leaning On God!"
"I'm on safari" - what does that mean - trip to Africa?
ReplyDeleteWondering - Kathy
It didn't take long to load for me Sharon. I use Chrome. When I think of manger, I think of a lowly, smelly place. The last place I would consider a King to be born. But the fact that He was born there lets me know that God is one who will come down to the lowest places to get us even when we're filled with stinky sin.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't take me long to load either and I use Foxfire.
ReplyDeleteI think a manger is because he wanted us to know HE was KING of everyone - rich and poor.
sandie
I think he chose a manger in a lowly stable to keep our eyes upon Jesus in the smelly ol stable where he was born...that he was like all of us...and that he is reachable for us all. Thought provoking post...
ReplyDeleteI think the manger that we have in our mind is not the type of manger Jesus was laid in. I think the conditions of his birth were very primitive. I think he chose to be born in those conditions because he came for all, not just the rich if he was born in a mansion or to wealth, but that everyone and anyone could identify with him, humble and meek, but mighty and awesome if we come to know him!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is a bit slow Sharon to load but I just thought it was my slow computer, LOL.
have a good weekend!
betty
Sometimes, I wish I could still see it as a little child, a creche like the one in my nativity scene. I grew up seeing a rustic little shelter. Study tells me it was something different, more cave like or built in.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of exactly what it looked like, I think the beauty lies in the fact that the Savior of the World, Son of God, was born in stark contrast to the lap of luxury. It comforts me to know that God's priorities are not the same as man's priorities. Our God doesn't just "say" He exalts the lowly. He actually does it, and he does it by example. What a wise and wonderful God we serve.
email coming...
Didn't take me long either...I' on firefox. great verse Sharon...He really does take away the fear and empowers to live free
ReplyDeleteI think we tend to think of the manger as a "pretty" place, much like the Nativity Scenes we display at Christmas time. I think it is important to remember that God chose real manger, with real animals, and obviously it was a smelly place. I'm sure most of us would have chosen a mansion or at least a nice warm friendly inn.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Charlotte
Blessings Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI came straight to the comments without glancing at one of the other responses, just so it would be the one in my mind since last Fri. when you shared the word: MANGER because my WORD for the Thurs. before in aChristmas devotional and also a book I got before I found out "Christmas Joy" was available online for free...was MANGER.
Today's WORD:Government!But back to this word "manger"... first off, I have my images from movies or my mom's Nativity Scene that we had in front of our picture window outside surrounded by evergreen branches and lights. But I know that a manger is an animal's food trough: an open box in a stable (since I had horses once, I knew this)... but a stable in the Mideast, in the desert or whatever it's like around there, certainly back then was not made out of wood... like the one my mom used, nor the one I placed my horse's hay in...
nor like the plastic one I use for a bathtub here (I can write this now because most of your readers have past and I will not be humiliated)... Yet, what I see in this word, cuz I always look for root words or similarities is
"mange"... and that is dirty... animal infestation... poor critters. Anyhow,
whether the stable or the manger was
like the movies, more authentic now...
like the cave looking shelter in the movie I sent you of the Nativity...
it was humble and not very sanitary for birth as this devotional pointed out.
So I wondered as you have been pondering, why would God allow His Son that humble beginning and put Mary and Joseph through this... You have to read this short devotional, because I love what Mel wrote... "He stays where He can..." so like the Holy Spirit... does not push His way in(INN), but gently woos us as His mother Mary and the doves coo Him to sleep... totally dependent on them for comfort and warmth; wrapped Him up, gave of all that they had available to them and held on to Him dearly. "A feeding trough will do. Not protected from the world, but lying in it."
When I read your question, I was thinking now this is a 'trick' question
Why do you think God chose a manger as the place for His Son to be born?
Clearly, to teach us that His love reaches the humble places, the ones surrendered, barely protected, the outcast or downcast... the most desperate needs... the basic one of "feeding"... fodder for animals and our soul... a place where we would be fed, daily from His life, from His Word, from His love, from His Living Water.
"Give us this day our daily bread..."
"man does not live by bread alone"...
"I am the bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
John 6:35
He is our sustenance! He is LIFE! He humbled Himself from the Throne to a manger, to serve rather than be served,
dependent on God for every provision.
How GREAT is that for a SAVIOR of the world. One who brings LIGHT from the darkness of a manger; who is LIGHT and LIFE! "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men." even as a small, dependent, tiny baby... HE IS!
He was and always will be... Son of God, Son of Man... the King of kings.
Not born in a royal setting but a quiet, serene, out of the way, among the people and animals, unsterile environment, nestled in the arms of love. What greater gift! And from that place, He was protected from Herod's rage... safe and innocent. Where they could hear God's whisper.
You know I love to come here after the others and share. So don't tell me to write a blog on this; I just did from the depths of my heart and the outpouring of His Spirit... I share and am blessed by your 'fanning the flame' word...
Love and prayers, peace and Christmas JOY (((hugs)))
Peggy