Chris - It sounds very Christmassy to me. There was no room at the inn, so the new birth would take place in a manger, which if course starts at the animal/lowest level of our being and through life experience can change into the highest. Because Jesus is born in the cave or stable, among the beasts, under the star. God is in love with compost heaps, because out of them can arise new life. Out of our broken life can arise a living thing - a hope, a promise - a love.
“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, but not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn: the cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, unless within thyself it be set up again.”
The empty white manger is a place prepared for something new to come into you. The year is coming to an end as the days get shorter and there is less light. But at the shortest day there is a pause for it is not yet certain that the sun will come to life again so the days will lengthen, but then it is certain and the Sun is born. So we, because we are part of these cosmic cycles can experience the manger filled with life.
Tony
