Away in a manger

By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson

24th December, 2021

Away in a manger,

No crib for His bed

The little Lord Jesus

Laid down His sweet head

No crib for a bed. That’s curious. A crib is among other things

1: a manger for feeding animals

2: an enclosure especially of framework: such as

a: a stall for a stabled animal

b: a small child’s bedstead with high enclosing usually slatted sides

From

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crib

So how can Jesus not have had a crib then? After all a crib means something ribbed, like the slats or ribs on a crib for a baby.

And in case you think a manger is a solid trough, well it is also usually slatted too, like a crib. Which is why the words are related of course.

And if you are a small calf, you can then reach the hay in the manger when you are able to chew the cud and start nibbling! Mummy cow can lean over the top while her calf will access the sides.

The following suggests the calf might start nibbling around a week to 10 days.

https://www.cattletoday.com/threads/calves-chewing-cud.21875/

But what about the meaning of manger? Well, in French this is ‘to eat’. Of course the cattle eat from a manger.

Anagrams of manger include

Engram

to do with memory. This could also be ‘e ‘N’ Gram  – to do with language. It sounds like “He ’N’ Gram”. Mmm…

A physical alteration of neural tissue in the brain, posited to explain how memories are formed.

From

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/engram

German –

1. An intricate dance for many couples.

2. A party for dancing at which this dance is featured.

And

ger·man 2  (jûr′mən)

adj.

Having the same parents or the same grandparents on either the mother’s or the father’s side. Often used in combination: a cousin-german; a brother-german.

[Middle English germain, from Old French, from Latin germānus, from germen, offshoot; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/German

And don’t forget that a germ is a seed, the germ of an idea, the idea. Jesus is the thoughts of God.

He is the promised seed from Genesis, the one who would crush the serpent’s head, Satan’s head.

https://answersingenesis.org/gospel/seed-promise-genesis-315/

So we have some fascinating insights into these words, and the manger in which Jesus was laid

You see Jesus is the Bread of Life. He was laid in a manger where the cattle eat from.

Jesus is the Word of God, the language of God, the memory of God.

On a computer it is the RAM (Random Access Memory) that accesses information. A ram is a male sheep. Jesus is the Lamb of God.

Jesus is the offshoot of Jesse. As it is written in Isaiah ‘Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.’

https://www.gotquestions.org/root-of-Jesse.html

Manger in the original Greek is Φάτνη

Transliteration: Phatne, Phonetic Spelling: fat’-nay

The first three letters sound as ‘Fat’ and on their own mean ‘Fat’. The last two letters mean as follows: νη  The noun νη (ne), which is short for νεος (neos), youth. From

https://www.abarim-publications.com/DictionaryG/n/n-et.html

So in essence we have a ‘fat youth’, or perhaps a bouncing baby boy!

But ‘Fat’ is part of father. Jesus is the heavenly Father’s Son, His beautiful Boy!!

In the manger you will find hay for the cattle to eat. This sound similar to hey which is the sound of the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See my post for some additional explanation of the names of God, especially YHWH, pronounced Yahweh.

G is for…..God

Hay – so the hey of YAHWEH. The H of YAHWEH represents the Son, the ‘The’ of God. Jesus is the ‘hey’, hey or hay to be eaten. He is the food of life, the Bread of Life!!!

To sum up

From the manger we have:

• Jesus was laid in a manger to be eaten as the Bread of Life
• Jesus is the hay of God to be eaten to sustain the children of God
• Jesus is the german, the offshoot
• Jesus is the germ-an, the promised seed to crush Satan’s head
• Jesus is the engram, the language of God, the word of God
• Jesus is the RAM, the access to the memory of God
• Jesus is the ram, the male lamb of God
• Jesus is, perhaps above all, the heavenly Father’s beautiful bouncing Boy!

I could write so much more but I didn’t sleep as well as I might have done last night as I struggle with my health energy. Anyway, I think that is plenty to be going on with.

Although I was going to say that as it seems german is an intricate dance, Jesus is the Lord of the Dance! Are you excited enough to dance yet?

But this is the heavenly Father’s gift to you this Christmas, which you can have every day of the year of course.

My heart was bursting as I wrote these things, and tears ran down my face. Let us finish with the words of the carol ‘Away in a manger’.

‘All the dear children’ include all the children of God of any age, and are for you whom I would like to call my darlings (if you don’t mind).

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care

And take us to heaven

To live with Thee there

P.S. If you want more about God, see here G is for…..God

If you want more about Jesus, see here J is for…..Jesus

If you want more about the Lord of the Dance, you need some music, so see here M is for…..Music

P.P.S. I may do some more about mangers in due course, so keep a look out.