The Meaning of the Manger

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To celebrate Christmas, here are excerpts from the chapter “Manger” in my first published (and now out of print, alas) book Voices: Messages in Gospel Symbols.
Jesus could have been born at home in Nazareth and placed in a wooden crib fashioned by his carpenter-father, Joseph. Instead, because he makes his appearance while his mother and father are en route, he has no suitable place to lay his head. This circumstance is prophetic, for over thirty years later, as an itinerant preacher, he will claim, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).Click to continue

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