In The Manger: A Destabilising Influence

 In The Manger

 

Careful with that baby
He is dangerous, I tell you,

You can wrap him
In swaddling
But you can’t contain him,

You can put him in a manger
But he won’t be managed,

You can bring him to the world in a stable
But your world may end up
Destabilised,

You can put him in your nativity
but he might run native,

You can put him in your show
But he might not play,

He won’t take stage directions
Where you put him
He may not stay,

He is just a baby
A baby, is what you say,
He may be just a baby,
But he won’t stay that way.

 

 

 

Reflection: A Destabilising Influence

 

My Inspiration for this piece came mainly from two sources. One which is easily accessible and one that you may possibly struggle to find.

The first is from C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Last Battle’, The audiobook of which was bedtime listening for me for many years. In the final climactic showdown of the title, (Spoiler alert) all the ‘True Narnians’ are being rounded up by the Calormenes and herded into a stable that is being set alight to sacrifice them to the their god, ‘Tash’. Once inside the stable (and I have no idea if this predates Dr. Who) the protagonists find themselves in a much bigger space (like the Tardis). I’ll spare you the minutiae, but one of the human characters (Lucy Pevensie) remarks, ‘in our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world’.

I’d be lying if I said that didn’t give me goosebumps; then (when I first read it) and now (as I write).

In case you’re wondering, that something was the infant Christ. Baby Jesus.

 

The second influence was a very clever poem by the Poet Godfrey Rust called ‘Home improvements’. My mother bought me his book ‘Breaking The Chains’ when I had just come back to the faith as an 18 year old, which had this piece in. In this poem Rust imagines a dinner party hosted, one presumes, in a middleclass London suburb, where Jesus is a neighbour that they have invited. The Poem written in the voice of the hosts, they describe Jesus as pleasant enough, to start with. It ends with them showing him around their house as he seems interested in their plans for home improvements. In the last verse he disappears into the cellar, and returns with a bunch of tools, a pocket full of drawings and an alarming smile. He says, I’ve just had a much better idea, and then proceeds to start knocking down walls. As a result, I’ve never really shaken this Idea of Jesus as a dangerous and unpredictable house-guest. But the thing is, he really has had a much better idea.

The very notion that a set of nails could have held him. What a joke. Only his love could have held him there! When you set your heart to following Jesus, you really have no idea where you will end up. When you are born again, you really have no concept of what that adult being will become. He really is dangerous. In the best way.

 

~Scripture~

 

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

~Luke 2:40

 

Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”^[f] 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them…And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

~Luke 2:49-52 (NIV)