There’s always the temptation to fill it, isn’t there?
Always the temptation to fill the space with something and always a good reason for doing so.
Nature abhors a vacuum and so do we.
So we look at our phone to check we’re still alive.
Or write a list of things we need to do. Or buy something.
We seek entertainment, distraction, doing.
And yes, maybe I just don’t wish to be with myself, because that never ends well. Who’d want to be alone with me?
And they could have filled the manger with all sorts of things.
There were a hundred ideas knocking round in the stable as Mary and Joseph settled in to their new home.
Storage space – priceless.
The empty manger could have held all their travelling gear; that would be useful.
Or why not fill it with hay for the Ezra the donkey, who’d done a lot of carrying of late.
An empty space needs filling, because empty is no use to anyone and to be absolutely avoided.
So perhaps it could hold a bowl of water for washing, that would be hygienic. Good idea, Mary?
Or be used for clothes, a makeshift wardrobe, they had brought extra, it was a long journey.
Just so many ways to fill the manger, and all good ways – practical, beneficial, sensible.
Though they left the manger empty, they kept the space.
A hundred good ideas were ignored in the stable.
Because emptiness, kindly held, is the start of everything beautiful and strong.
Space creates.
From no thing, some thing.
As to that night, and it’s a long time ago, I don’t remember what precisely occurred in that bare and vacant crib.
Something good, no doubt.
