Round the manger – with Bishop Graham, Mary and Fred

Over the past four weeks throughout Advent I’ve mused again on the old story, on prophesies and pregnancies, Nazareth and Bethlehem, angels from heavenand ordinary people with problems, God’s plan and human confusion…

This Christmas morning, a day that will be filled with activity, I pause, and gather with others looking in at the manger.

Yesterday started with Bishop Graham’s view of the crib scene, influenced by his trip to Gaza in October:

‘In Gaza and Israel, as well as in Bethlehem on the occupied West Bank, there is much pain, tremendous heartache and untold suffering…

‘So the crib scene in my mind this year is surrounded by bombed out rubble. The carols contain the echo of wailing mothers and the cry of children…’

Yesterday evening we watched the carols from Kings College Cambridge. One of the readings was Mary Coleridge’s poem ‘I saw a stable’:

I saw a stable, low and very bare,
A little child in a manger.
The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care,
To men He was a stranger.
The safety of the world was lying there,
And the world’s danger.

Yesterday afternoon our church crib service involved our children and young people. We sung carols and met ‘Festive Fred’, an enthusiastic boy, who’s looking forward to Christmas. In a dream he meets a shepherd, sees an angel, and is taken to see Mary, Joseph and the baby:

Mary: Would you like to hold him?

Fred: No way – I’m too messy to hold the greatest gift in history

Mary: But he’s not afraid of our messy things

This morning Mary, Joseph and shepherds are looking at a small child in a manger. They’re joined by Bishop Graham who sees pain and suffering in today’s Bethlehem, Mary Coleridge who sees safety alongside danger, and Fred who sees ‘The one who came to rescue us from our messy things. In fact, he’s the greatest gift ever!’

And I join them.