Away in an UGLY manger...

Our Christmas tree was always beautiful. Lit with white lights and decorated with handmade kiddy ornaments. My little sister's green, red and white crochet string wound up each layer like a soft-serve ice cream cone. Since we didn't have a mantel, our stockings hung on the knobs of an antique cabinet to the right of the tree.

One year, Kim & I found a literal manger: a rough feeding trough that Daddy had built to put out for the deer. Retired now, it sat in the kindling pile. We pulled that tall, gray, ugly thing to the house and filled it with hay from the barn.  My parents let us bring it INSIDE. We dragged it across the carpet in the living room and set it to the right of the tree (in front of our pretty little stockings). The scene was then completed with a baby doll wrapped up in random bits of fabric.

A tall, crude manger: the focal point of the room. That Christmas forever changed the way I looked at the Christmas story. And now that its Christmas time, may the manger be the focal point of my heart.

I'll always be thankful for a Mom & Dad who let Jesus be the center of our family's Christmas.

(from the movie: The Nativity)