No crib for a bed – Luke 2: 1-7

‘In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  All went to their own towns to be registered.  Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.  He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.’

Reflection

In Nazareth, long after the working day was over, sounds of activity in the carpentry shop could still be heard.  Joseph planed the edge of the wood in his vice, the shavings twirled in the air before settling on the workshop floor.  He ran his finger along the wood, now so smooth.  Removing the contents of the vice he turned to a second workbench, where he nailed the new piece in place.  Taking his chisel and mallet, he painstakingly etched his initials in the corner of the headboard.  In the flickering light of his lamp, he stood back to survey his craftmanship, it was a fine crib to be sure and personally designed by Joseph and in his opinion there would be nowhere better to lay the Son of God after he’d been born.  Joseph had begun to think of that special moment when, as a family, they would all be together in their own home.  Proud of his work, he knew he could only give the best for Jesus……..

Five months later Joseph stood in the Bethlehem stable and stared long and hard at the stone feeding trough.  Under the circumstances it was the best he could find for a crib.  He’d scrubbed it out as best he could and packed it with clean straw while Mary sat quietly nearby nursing the newborn baby.  A tinge of sadness rested upon Joseph which nestled uneasily with the great joy he’d experienced at Jesus’ birth, and sighed deeply as Mary laid the now sleeping infant into the trough.

Back in Nazareth, Joseph’s own crib stood empty, a silent testimony to expectations held, yet not fulfilled.

If Joseph did make a crib under those circumstances then Jesus never slept in it.  The unexpected journey to Bethlehem and the enforced exile into Egypt robbed the whole family of their own home and comforts for probably two years.  Joseph’s crib – such beautiful handiwork left behind, instead a feeding trough, a seemingly cold comfort for an infant king.  On the night when Jesus was born, did he not deserve more than this?

If there is any truth in the story of the crib, there would have come a day when, after returning from exile, the holy family came home to Nazareth.  It is possible that one day Joseph would have  carried Jesus into his workshop for the first time and shown him the crib.  “I made that for you,” he might have said, “but it wasn’t to be.  But I tell you this: when you were laid in that manger on the night you were born, that manger became the finest crib in all the world.”

Prayer

 Lord, who shared the highest and lowest of our humanity.  Help is to realise that when you look upon our troubles, it is with compassionate and sympathetic eyes.  You stooped to touch the same dust that we were sometimes laid in.  You have felt the pain our own hearts break with.  Our tears mingle with ones you have already shed and may your sympathetic heart give ours courage to face the times when you act in ways outside our own expectations.  Help us to trust you more. Amen.

Penny Bonham