The Manger Scene

One of Augustine’s Christmas sermons back in the 4th century described the manger scene so poignantly, it is worth quoting:

“See…what God has become for you.  Take to heart the lesson of this great humility, though the teacher of it is still without speech.  Once, in Paradise, you were so eloquent that you gave a name to every living being; but your Creator, because of you, lay speechless, and did not even call his mother by her name.  You, finding yourself in a boundless estate of fruitful groves, destroyed yourself by having no regard for obedience.  He, obedient, came as a mortal man to a poor, tiny lodging that by dying He might seek the return of him who had died.”