Eat and See

After Mary’s new baby had taken His first breath, part of the heavenly announcement was that the shepherds would find Him “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  This young new mother had dressed Him in His first earthly apparel, simple and rough though it may have been.  Then instead of being physically wrapped in His mother’s protective arms, He was laid in a manger.  Mary obviously was quick to be in the rhythm of God that her son had arrived FOR the world. 

He seemed to be being offered as food to us right from the start as she willingly placed her precious newborn there in the feeding place of the stable. It was her first sacrificial action after He arrived.  She seemed to be saying, “Here He is; taste and see that the LORD is good.” 

We don’t get nourished by looking at food from afar.  We have to pick it up and chew on it.  The breaking down of our literal food into nourishment happens in the quiet hidden places.  So too with the spiritual food we are offered.   Taste and see.  Maybe that doesn’t just mean “taste and have the evidence”, but “taste and have your eyes opened.”