Article December 9, 1985 Issue

Maintaining the manger attitude

MARIAN C. ENGLISH

Bethlehem was bustling. In this ordinarily sleepy little town, travelers registering for the tax were crowding the inn until there was no room for more. But there remained a quiet place for one small family. "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:7.

The modest stable with its quiet manger provided a place for the infant Jesus, whose entire momentous career exemplified the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love. To me, the manger symbolizes the type of receptivity required to welcome the dawning of the Christ in individual consciousness.

In the flurry of holiday festivities, one may be tempted to allow his mental atmosphere to become as crowded as that beehive of a Bethlehem inn. Thoughts may swarm with one taxing demand elbowing another—special events crowding out sleepy routine, anxious moments consumed in the irrelevant tradition of spending until spent. Or perhaps walls of loneliness and partitions of purposelessness would separate one from the calmness of holy, uplifting joy.

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