Our Hearts as Mangers

Inside the Church of the Nativity. The star represents the spot where Christ was born

We were able to visit the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem.  I was in awe of being able to touch the place where Christ's manger was standing.  One has to kneel and reach in to be able to kiss the area. There are latin inscriptions on the star saying, ”Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est” (Here the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ”).  I felt like one of the shepherds who witnessed the new born Christ.

Here are some of my reflections regarding this experience:

1. You cannot save someone without being there for them. Jesus, Son of God, out of His love for us came down to earth, became flesh, to save us from our sins.  We long to help others, but they need us to be present in their lives.  We want to help and save the poor, but we are only content with our donations.  We want to help our own family, but we do not give time to talk and heal.  The only way for Christ to save us was to be there for us by becoming human, so we can be brought to heaven with him through the saving power of His death and resurrection.

2. If we are to be like Christ, we are to be born out of humility.  My 4 year old son, Sev, can already narrate the nativity story in his own words.  He would stress that the place where Christ was born did not smell nice because there were animals around.  Following Christ is a nativity experience.  We will always be humbled and put in a "manger" instead of a comfortable or pleasant position. Truly the Lord blesses us in abundance. But without the experience of being humbled, we will never be genuinely grateful for what we have.

3. We kneel before the King to also be reminded of who we are.  We often kneel in prayer for reverence to God, but kneeling is also to remind us about ourselves and that we cannot be above our King.  When pride comes into our hearts, it is often difficult to kneel.  Although Jesus was just a baby, both shepherds and earthly kings knelt before Him.  They understood who they were in the presence of the One. Therefore the best way to know ourselves is not to psycho-analyze but to be in God's presence.  If we were to realize our purpose, we can only discover it from the reference point of God.

Experiencing Bethlehem made this year's Christmas extra meaningful for me.  I believe that what is important is that we are able to transform our hearts into humble mangers so that Christ will be born in us.  Have a meaningful Christmas season!