A Foreshadowing

God demonstrates His humility through the birth of Jesus, as we’ve discussed before. We see that He came to earth in a humble state as a baby, and while He could’ve chosen any life on earth, He chose to be a carpenter’s son.
           
Jesus was not privileged or pampered. He was poor but that made Him approachable. We’ve discussed that He did this to demonstrate that He is available for all people, not just for kings or the rich. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich” (8:9).
           
The King of Kings left His throne so that we might share in His glorious inheritance.
           
We see the humility of God through Jesus’ birth, but there’s great significance in every piece of the puzzle.

The Word tells us that Christ was laid in a manger. We usually think of a manger as being made of wood, but there are historians and archeologists who believe it’s more accurate that the manger was made out of stone that was hewed out. So, if we imagine baby Jesus being laid in a hewed-out manger made of stone, the illustration is almost a foreshadowing. Jesus is laid in a stone manger at His birth, and 33 years later He’s laid in a stone tomb at His death.
             
This feeding trough was not sized for a baby—it’s not a crib meant for a child but a trough for animals to eat from. It was most likely long, nearly the length of a human.
           
The Word also tells us that Mary wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. She wraps Him in linen and lays Him in a manger at His birth. But the next time He’d be wrapped in linen and laid in stone is at His death. So, we see that the birth of Jesus is also a foreshadowing of His death.
           
There are no coincidences when it comes to God’s plan. Every piece of the puzzle—every paint stroke in the grand picture of past, present, and future—is designed and determined by God. It’s easy for us to pass right over the fingerprints of God, but there’s significance in everything, and there’s perhaps no other place in Scripture that represents this more than the Christmas story.

We so often fail to realize that He surrounds us, but no detail of life is lost or forgotten by Him.