The City of David, My Birth Place

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

July 22, 2019

The City of David, My Birth Place

Page 21-22

Matthew 1:18a, 2:1a; Luke 2:1-21

Sometimes when I am throwing toys for Hershey to fetch, he loses sight of the toy. I’ll point to the toy, but instead of looking where I am pointing, Hershey looks at my finger. He gets focused on the sign and misses where the sign is pointing.

Sometimes people make that same mistake. At Christmas time we may get so focused on the symbols of Christmas, we may miss where the symbols are pointing. The story of Jesus’ birth included the manger three times. Mary laid Jesus in a manger; the angels told the shepherds they would find the new born Messiah in a manger; and the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found the baby Jesus lying in a manger, just as they had been told.

The manger was a feeding trough hewed in stone, and this is where Jesus began his life, in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means city of bread. Jesus will be known as the bread of life. At the last supper, Jesus took bread and broke it, and told his followers the bread was his body.

Thus the manger is a sign, pointing the way for the shepherds to find the Messiah. The manger, a feeding trough, is also a sign pointing to Jesus’ ultimate gift to his followers: “Take, eat, this is my body given for you.”

My Takeaway: My church celebrates the sacrament of Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month. I’ve written the word ‘manger’ on my calendar for August 4 because I want to recall this meditation when I go forward to receive the Bread and Cup.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.