Luke 2:7 [1]
“Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmastide our care and delight to hear again the message of the angels, and in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass …” [2].
They are words heard each year at the beginning of the service of Nine Lessons and Carols, in the days before Christmas Day.
It is a call echoed in our carols. In the words of ‘O come, all ye faithful':
“See how the shepherds, Summoned to His cradle, Leaving their flocks, draw nigh with lowly fear; We too will thither bend our joyful footsteps” [3].
And in the quietness and stillness of this Christmas morning, this is what we do.
As Saint Luke’s account of the Lord’s nativity is read; as we confess in the Creed, “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man”; as we come to the holy Sacrament, there to partake of Him …
We ‘in heart and mind go even unto Bethlehem’, ‘we too thither bend our joyful footsteps’.
And what is it that we behold? What do we encounter? What is placed before us?
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.”
A simple, humble, ordinary scene. A Mother gives birth. She wraps her Infant Son in swaddling clothes. She places Him in a manger for rest, for sleep.
A simple, humble, ordinary scene so as not to overwhelm us, not to frighten us, not to compel us, but to lovingly invite us in, that we might come and behold, love and adore.
And so here, alongside the shepherds, we pause. And we behold and we adore. Here, in this simple, humble, ordinary scene is our salvation. This is why the angelic host rejoiced, why angel voices proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace”.
This simple, humble, ordinary scene holds all that is needed, all that our hearts can desire. For this is the grace, mercy, and love of God fully poured out, dwelling amongst us, in this Child, born of the Virgin Mary.
This is why in the quietness and stillness of this Christmas morning, we ‘in heart and mind go even unto Bethlehem’, why ‘We too thither bend our joyful footsteps’.
Fulness is here, in the manger. The fulness of grace, the fulness of mercy, the fulness of love divine.
Whatever 2025 has brought us, whatever 2026 may bring us. Whatever our joys or sorrows, our hopes or fears, our thanksgivings or regrets, the fulness of grace, mercy, and love in the Christ Child embraces us, holds us, heals us, saves us.
In his Narnia tales, C.S. Lewis has one of the children, Lucy, say, “a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world” [4].
The holy Child of Bethlehem is indeed “bigger than our whole world” - dwelling amongst us in simplicity and humility, that we might come and behold, love and adore.
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.”
In heart and mind, alongside the shepherds, let us then come to the stable and behold, adoring the Child in the manger, Christ our Lord, for in Him the very fulness of the grace, mercy, and love of God forever holds us.
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