Just Beyond the Manger

     I think this will be the last of my Christmas posts. After today the topics will probably not follow much of a pattern until Easter. This post is also a little different in that I didn't write it. I mean have written it on paper, and I am typing it right now (at least I will be in a few minutes), but these are somebody else's words. They are in fact the words of Joseph M. Martin. They are the lyrics to a song he wrote entitled "Just Beyond the Manger". I think it is important to remember that there is more to the story of Jesus than His miraculous birth. He was born for a reason, to provide a path to the presence of God.

Just Beyond the Manger
by Joseph M. Martin

Just beyond the manger,
I hear no lullabies, 
I see no golden hay,
I feel no starlight.
Just beyond the manger.


Just beyond the manger,
I hear the hammer fall,
I see a rugged cross,
I feel the chill of night.
Just beyond the manger.


Just beyond the manger,
I see no swaddling clothes,
I hear no angels sing,
I feel no candle glow.
Just beyond the manger.


Just beyond the manger,
I see a lonely hill,
The Savior crying still,
I hear the thunder roll.
Just beyond the manger.


Forgive us Lord, and grant us eyes to see
in every Christmas, Calvary;
Implant it in our hearts.
Help us recall amid trees of red and gold
on another tree raised long ago
we raised God's brightest star.
Just beyond the manger,
Just beyond the manger.