Away in that manger long ago, on that starlit night when the angels flooded the Judean sky with song, was born more than the Jesus of the cradle; there was born the Christ of the Cross. His plan was to do more than invade our world and experience our lives; He was to rescue us, to redeem us, to save us eternally, to atone for our sins. You see, Jesus knew there would be more than a birthday to commemorate; He knew there would be a resurrection day as well.

Thirty-two years ago Dag Hammarskjold observed, "How proper it is that Christmas should follow Advent. For him who looks toward the future, the manger is situated on Golgotha, and the cross has already been raised in Bethlehem."1 That's the story of the Divine Manager. Christmas without Easter is romance without a kiss, joy without a reason, extravagance without purpose. Thus we cannot truly celebrate Christmas if there is no dealing with Easter, for God came in Christ to manage our deliverance, to reconcile the world unto Himself (2 Cor. 5:18).

Not to manipulate you and me, understand? Not to swindle us into some cockamamie idea. Nor to entice us, like some wayward youngsters in the fashion of Pinocchio, into a carnival with a short run. He did not intend to shanghai a fallen race into the eternal kingdom, but to pay our debts, welcome us to follow Him, if we will, so that then we will delight in the warmth of God's love forever. Thus, between the crib and the cross, Jesus preached to the eager crowds, healed the ailing, brought to life the dead, fed the hungry, and encouraged the downtrodden. And then He died for us; the Sweet Child of Christmas, now full grown, died for us. But just as we thrill to a surprise gift under the tree, so Jesus gave us a surprise gift greater than the memory of His torturous death. He mastered the grave and invites us to master it also. That takes more than a manger; it takes a truly Divine Manager.

We come to the altar to discover that within the cup and on the paten are more than wine and bread; there is this remarkable Manager, managing to give Himself in holy remembrance, managing to absolve us of our sins and give us the gift of forgiveness, managing to give us Himself in body broken and blood shed, so that we can manage our lives free of old guilt and absent of old tarnish. Jesus is here to be born in our hearts in a unique way that requires more than the Lord of the manger; here is the Lord who is a Manager and manages to bridge the separation between heaven and earth, the sinless and the sinful, reality and hope.

We are not to become God's manager ourselves, but to permit this Divine Manager to lead us to the manger and then to the miracle of faith. Writes John Killinger, "Let's not miss [Christmas] by being too busy, by overdoing, by trying to 'manage' its coming."2 That is not to say we are to be delinquent in well-doing. Not at all. It is to say that Away in the Manager is more than a beautiful story, it is the guiding hand for life. Let Him lead you.