Jesus is Willing to be Messy
Do you ever think you need to clean yourself up for Jesus?
Verse of the Day
‘And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.’
Today’s Devotional
I realize Christmas is over and that this is a Christmas-y verse. But we are going to finish out this year focusing on Jesus.
How much time have you spent on a farm? There is one thing I always notice on any farm or property with animals, no matter how clean it is. The smell. Livestock are smelly creatures. And again, even if the barn is kept clean, animals are just messy, smelly creatures.
We use the word “manger” this time of year, only to remind us of the nativity scene. But a manger is “a long open box or trough for horses or cattle to eat from”. So Mary laid baby Jesus in a feeding trough.
I follow many Christian writers and bloggers on social media. Recently, Sharon Hodde Miller posted something about this verse that really stuck out to me. She said:
In the story of Jesus’ birth, the manger is not simply a symbol of Jesus’ humility. It also represents the kinds of places Jesus came to inhabit. The muckiest, yuckiest, ugliest places in all the world – even the ones deep down in our hearts- are the PRECISE places Jesus came to access. So don’t withhold it or hide it from him. He already knows – it’s why he came in the first place.
I love this image of Jesus being willing to go to the messiest places we can imagine. He wasn’t too proud to have a feeding trough as His crib. He is not too distant to go with us to our messy places.
And let’s be honest for a moment. We all have messy places in our hearts.
We do not have to clean ourselves up for Jesus. He came to come into the messiest parts of our lives and do the clean up Himself. Because that is who He is. That’s the kind of love that He offers us.
Our instinct, as humans, is to hide the things we are not proud of. Or the things we are embarrassed of. Or the things we are ashamed of. But Jesus can see it all, no matter how hard we try to hide. And He shows us, by the lowly nature of His birth, just how willing He is to get messy.
He really does love us that much.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What messy parts of your life and heart do you try to hide?
How can you invite Jesus into your mess?
How can you thank Jesus today for His humility?
How can you model the humility of Jesus?