Joy Upon Joy, with Charles SpurgeonSýnishorn

Do you see Him as on that day of heaven’s eclipse He did ungird His majesty? Where sleeps the newborn King? Had He the best room in Caesar’s palace? Has a cradle of gold been prepared for him, and pillows of down on which to rest His head? No, where the ox fed, in the dilapidated stable, in the manger, there the Savior lies, swathed in the swaddling bands of the children of poverty! Nor there does He rest long; on a sudden, His mother must carry Him to Egypt; He goes there and becomes a stranger in a strange land. When He comes back, see Him that made the worlds handle the hammer and the nails, assisting His father in the trade of a carpenter! 

As for food, He oftentimes did hunger, and always was dependent upon the charity of others for the relief of His wants! He, who scattered the harvest over the broad acres of the world, had not sometimes wherewithal to stay the pangs of hunger? He, who dug the springs of the ocean, sat upon a well and said to a Samaritan woman, “Give me to drink” (John 4:7)! 

He rode in no chariot, He walked His weary way, foot sore, over the flints of Galilee! He had nowhere to lay His head. He looked upon the fox as it hurried to its burrow, and the fowl as it went to its resting-place, and He said, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). He who had once been waited on by angels becomes the servant of servants, takes a towel, girds Himself, and washes His disciples’ feet! He who was once honored with the hallelujahs of ages is now spit upon and despised! He who was loved by His Father, and had abundance of the wealth of affection, could say, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18). 

Oh, for words to picture the humiliation of Christ! What leagues of distance between Him that sat upon the throne and Him that died upon the cross! Oh, who can tell the mighty chasm between yonder heights of glory and the cross of deepest woe! Trace Him, Christian, He has left you His manger to show you how God came down to man.