“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”  Luke 2:7

 At Christmas, most people spend their daytime hours “making a list and checking it twice!”  We are so rushed going from the shopping mall just as it opens or before it closes, grab a bit to eat, then head off to the Christmas musical or school program, send out Christmas cards to be delivered before December 25 and put up brightly colored decorations!  We can be so hurried, we don’t have time to think about the purpose of the season.  Christmas is supposed to represent the birth of Jesus Christ, the One who broke history into two parts – B.C. and A.D.  But many people today think of it more as a Winter Holiday and have no thoughts for the One who came to save them.  They have their yards decked out with every kind of snowman, Santa Claus, sleighs, reindeer and Disney characters, but the sweet baby in the manger is nowhere in sight!  Whose birthday is it?

I love the music of Christmas and enjoy so many of the songs of the season.  Casting Crowns has a song called “While You Were Sleeping,” that really caused me to pause and consider the events surrounding Bethlehem at the time of Christ.  One of the lines states, “Born among the animals, wrapped in dirty rags, because there was no room for Him in the world He came to save.”  Yes, there was no room for the King of Glory!  But I wondered if Jesus was really wrapped in “dirty rags?”  The ESV translation says “swaddling cloths.”  I did a little study on swaddling cloths and learned some interesting facts.

Mothers in the ancient world swaddled their babies many years before Jesus’ birth.  Ezekiel 16:4 refers to the birth of a baby: on the day you were born your cord was cut, you were washed with water to cleanse you, rubbed with salt, wrapped in swaddling cloths or “bands.”  What exactly is a “swaddling band?”  I learned it was made from linen or cotton material, 5-6 yards long and 4-6 inches wide.  Mary would’ve wrapped baby Jesus tightly in cloths, providing a snug place to transition from the womb to the outside world.  Swaddled infants didn’t have free movement of their arms and legs.  Their legs were wrapped together with arms placed at their sides, wrapped from ankles to neck, a helpless baby.  Mary wrapped Jesus according to the custom of the day showing that her Son, having come from God, was being lovingly cared for.  As the song claimed, “dirty rags?”  I don’t think so!  Mary would’ve been prepared for the birth, like any mother, she would have had cloths set aside and ready.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds, they said to them, “This will be a sign to you.  You’ll see the baby lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths,”Luke 2:12.    What was the significance of the shepherds?  Some Bible scholars believe these weren’t ordinary shepherds, they were “Levitical shepherds” who would wrap the lambs in clean swaddling cloths to protect the perfect ones for sacrifices in the Temple.  Swaddling would have been a connection point for the shepherds.  What did the shepherds see when they arrived at the stable?  Could it be a baby born in the same place the Passover lambs were born, swaddled like a Passover lamb, pointing to the fact that Jesus the Messiah was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world?

In all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, let’s not forget the significance of the birth of the Holy One who came to this earth as a sacrifice for us!

Your friend, Jean