Years ago, during advent, I went to a morning of preparation. A time of preparing my self for Christmas. As part of the reflection, I was asked:

“Do you have any empty mangers in your heart that you want Jesus to come into?

I found this a poignant reminder that during advent we are waiting…waiting by empty mangers for the Holy One.

At that advent preparation time we had a time of reflection and I found my mind full of chaos – praying about the life stories of my patients – and my own end of year tiredness… I looked up and noticed that even the beautiful garden I was sitting in was not ordered or symmetrical…and yet it was beautiful.

My prayers shifted to seeing how God intentionally, knowingly comes into our chaos – my chaos…that I do not have to make order and symmetry in preparation for His coming. He choses to come in a vulnerable form into our mess. I just need to be aware of my longing and receive him willingly into my messy manger.

At that reflection time, we had the chance to make an empty manger out of clay…and I started to design a beautiful symmetrical patterned ‘masterpiece’ – until I remembered what I’d been learning… and instead I made a small manger with lots of sticky out bits of hay. It sits in my hallway now – a reminder of the messy manger that is my life…waiting for Him.

Will you wait with me, letting Him come…into our messy lives?