Born in a Poop-filled Stall
She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
We have two manger scenes sitting out in our home. Both are from Mexico. I think I bought the second one forgetting I already had the first, but they are dissimilar enough that it looks okay. As I look at them, I can’t help but smile and think of when Luke was really small how he made baby Jesus a superhero flying around the room.
Our manager scenes have all the necessary ingredients – baby Jesus in a manger, Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, animals and one has wise men (even though the magi probably showed up at a later time). But one thing they both lack…. poop.
I mean if there were animals there, there would be poop… dung… feces… cow patties… manger muffins. And if enough people were in town to bring out the ‘no vacancy’ sign at the local inn, there would have been tons of poop.
Seems to me its significant that Jesus was born in a place with a lot of stinky poop because He came to take away our poop.
You have to understand poop is a popular topic in our house of boys. Robin is very gracious and let’s them … er us… be boys. Poop was the first word both Jack and Drew learned to spell. It makes them all smile and giggle. Cleaning poop has been a part of our lives for 8 1/2 years now. We can’t escape it.
And I can’t escape it in my life. I have poop. I sin. I do things I shouldn’t. I think things I shouldn’t. I get angry. I’m selfish. I’m stubborn. I’m greedy. I waste a lot… a lot of time, money, stuff… things that could be used to make the world less poopy.
I have poop. You have poop. All God’s children have poop. Poop happens. There is no way to escape it. Our dung-heap is high and stinks.
Sometimes our poop gets out of control. Unsafe drinking water. Hungry children. Families wrecked. Disease and death. Abuse. Loneliness. Despair.
Jesus entered into the world of poop. He enters our poop. He takes it away. He came to rid the world of poop…. to wipe it clean.
Tonight I shared this with my boys at the dinner table. (Normally poopy talk is off-limits at the table but Robin gave that rule a break tonight.) And so afterwards we added poop (in the form of chocolate chips) to each of our manager scenes. And maybe on Christmas morning, we will eat the chocolate ‘poop’ chips.
