From the Manger to the Cross: Advent & Christmas Meditations on the King Born in a Stable, Crowned with Thorns and Reigns Forever

A manger, as someone succinctly put it, is a wooden structure large enough to hold the Bread of Life. See how this common stable fixture is lifted up to a place of sacred significance. But looming in the midnight shadows of the manger, there is the figure of the Cross. Like the manger, it is a wooden structure large enough to hold the Bread of Life. The manger is a symbol of joy, but a very peculiar joy, for even as we celebrate Christmas, we know that the day of Crucifixion is also at hand...