Article December 7, 1998 Issue

Let's return to the manger

Will you be like the shepherds or like Herod this holiday season?

By Diana Davis Butler

HAS THE ENTIRE holiday season, especially Christmas, become just too much? Some people find the celebrations a nuisance, while others might feel depressed or lonely. Yet the Bible records the angel's reassurance and promise on the first Christmas, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10). How can we see this promise of Christmas fulfilled?

Perhaps the Biblical account of the birth of Christ Jesus holds the answer. He was the Son of God, but he was not born in a palace. He was born in a simple stable and laid in a manger. There was no room at the inn, yet the manger provided a safe, quiet shelter for the Christ child, or Messiah (see Luke 2:1—16).

While Jesus was the full embodiment of Christ on earth, the Christ-idea is eternal and constantly reappears to each of us as we prepare a place for it. As Mary Baker Eddy explains: "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual,—yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses ..." (Science and Health, p. 332). The peace and purity of the manger represent the qualities of thought that are ready to provide shelter and safety to this idea as it appears in each individual's consciousness.

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