Christmas Playlistنموونە

“Away” in a manger

If there’s one lyric that grabs my attention at Christmas, it’s the “away” in “Away in a Manger.” “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed/the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.” Away implies distance, like when a friend lives far away or she goes away to an out-of-state college. There in Bethlehem’s manger, Jesus was away from his happy home in heaven. Jesus stepped away from the praise of angels and spent his first postpartum night in a feeding trough covered in barnyard drool. That’s how far away from home the Lord Jesus was.

I once ran up Mount Arbel, a national park near the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The views were breathtaking, but the trail up the mountain was nasty. Herds of cows roamed the hills, and those beasts did their business right on the path. As I was dodging the brown puddles of bovine waste, it hit me—Jesus walked here. His feet traveled these same Galilean hills, but in open-toed sandals!

What a reminder of the Lord’s willingness to give so that you and I could get! Jesus came down to this dirty, broken world and walked with us despite all the messiness of this life and the misery of the cross. He did that for you and me so that we could get “away” from our sin and shame and end up with him in the happiness of heaven.

“‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:23).