Lowly

 December 20, 2024

“She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” —Luke 2:7 

Have you ever wondered why this detail is in the Bible? To the best of my knowledge, there were no prophecies pointing to the Messiah being laid in a manger or that there would be no decent place for Mary and Joseph to stay that night of Jesus’ birth. His suffering and death are prefigured in Isaiah 53, but about his birth, only silence. So why is this recorded here? 

It’s always dangerous to speculate, but I’ll do so anyway. I think it’s so no one has to feel left out. No matter how lowly your situation, no matter how bleak your beginnings, God isn’t ashamed of you, nor is he unwilling to get his hands dirty, so to speak. Our God doesn’t hide away in some distant heavenly mansion, untouched and unknowable. He stooped to the lowliest of people and places. 

You may feel you have sunk to such levels that God wouldn’t want to have anything to do with. You. You may feel you have been trapped in some obscure place (like Sinclairville) where you will remain forgotten and forsaken, but none of that is true. God came down to the most unlikely place, to the most unlikely people…for you.