Advent IV: Great Tidings to All People

Mangers come in all shapes and sizes, and are found in unlikely places, still.

On a bleak November morning in 1932, a bewildered soul, with shaky hands and blood-shot eyes, sat at his kitchen table waiting for his childhood friend, and regular drinking buddy, to arrive.

Opening the door, however, the man could see his friend was different. He was now sober, he explained, and politely refused the invitation for a morning nip. Instead, he spoke to his friend about the presence of God he’d found and the transformative power of that presence. No longer struggling in the dark, longing for something to fill the emptiness within, the Christmas message of God being with us came early that year and became personal.

Years later, the man across the table described his impressions:

“That floored me. It began to look as though religious people were right after all. Here was something at work in a human heart which had done the impossible. My ideas about miracles were drastically revised right then. Never mind the musty past; here sat a miracle directly across the kitchen table. He shouted great tidings.” (Page 11 The Big Book)

That morning, a remarkable movement began for all people, or at least for those who need it. Begun at a kitchen table, of all places, two gathered like wise men with gifts - one bringing deep hunger, the other great tidings. As happened 2,000 years ago (and just the other day, and, most likely, later today and tomorrow) a presence came and changed the world, yet again.

Mangers come in all shapes and sizes, and are found in unlikely places, still.