An Empty Cradle and the Promise of a Manger....

My heart grew numb as she walked in with the baby. I felt flush and red all over. I wanted to run and yet my feet were glued to the ground; I was trapped!

Of all babies WHY was I letting this one get to me? My eyes were glued to his as I contained the tears from streaming down my face.

I saw the empty cradle as they gently brought it in, but I had no clue....I didn't know!

My mind flashed back to the empty cradle that once sat in my own house....the cradle I longed to fill and yet never could. The cradle that etched its place on my wall and in my heart of what never was.

My mind came back and I again found myself starring at the reality of the baby.  The tiny baby who represented everything that this World needs and the tiny baby who left me breathless and lost in this very moment.

I didn't expect him to be real, and yet He was....She placed him in the manger and I stood in awe of what I wanted and what I had hoped for.

You see, it was our church choir practice, and this was baby Jesus. How could I be jealous of THIS baby? Why is my heart hurting now?

I watched as he so peacefully laid in the manger and I wondered if my sweet girl would have done the same. I wanted to run to the manger and beg to have my moment back; beg for my cradle to be whole and not empty. Beg to go back in time!

I would often sit and stare into Bethany's empty cradle and I would wonder what I was looking for and how I was going to move on. The more I gazed into the manger the more I realized what I was looking for was  there all along; my cradle was never really empty.

The hope, love and promise of my Savior was there, placed in a manger all those years ago. He was sent to take the pain of this world, SO we didn't have too.

It was a gift sent so many years ago. It was the promise sent in the manger; It was the gift of Christmas. It was the gift to guide us through heartache, trials, and joy. It was the gift that never stops giving and the gift to save us forever.

The empty cradle that rocks back and forth through my mind is ever so sweetly filled with love and Grace by my Savior who reaches in and fills my heart.

Christmas will come and Christmas will go, but the promise and the gift of Jesus Christ is eternal. There will always be moments in my life where the emptiness seems to overwhelm me and the memories are too real.

The manger was just another empty manger until our Lord and Savior was placed upon it.

Are you willing to accept the only real gift you need this Christmas and let go of the emptiness in your heart????

It's the gift of Christmas....It's the Promise sent in a manger!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

James 1:17


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