Rating:

A Devotional About the Greatest Story Ever Told

Author: Max Lucado

In this beautiful selection, In The Manager, Max Lucado once again uses his writing magic, taking us back in time to that crowded, humble manger where the Son of God took on human weakness to save us and establish a lasting relationship built on divine love and sacrifice. Lucado has an evocative, gentle way of writing, one that highlights God’s divinity while emphasizing the shocking nature of His humanity. That child in the manger had hands and feet, human needs and human tears, and His story is one of unparalleled love, despite the pain, the violence, and the death.

Each day in this selection, meant for the Advent season, but honestly good for any time and place, Lucado breaks down the meaning and actions of God’s great love, of what His son did, and of how that must have looked, day by day, as God become human walked among us and shared in our sufferings and triumphs, our few strengths and many, inevitable frailties.  It’s devotional and moving, evoking a sweetness we often forget. We know the Bible, the who, what, where, when, to such an extent that sometimes we forget the magnitude of the story, the emotions of Jesus and those around Him, the shattering nature of what we take for granted.

Image by Ken Williams from Pixabay

Here, In the Manager takes us back, makes us slow down and walk with Christ, makes us think about all that He did, about the entire history of God with His people and the Bible, of what it all means, of what it was all leading towards. This isn’t a rote history lesson, an empty recounting, and this is far more than the charming Christmas postcard picture of a woman and a baby in a manger. This is a season with the Son of God during the most significant moment in human history, the moment when God reached down, become us, and gave us the gift of himself.

Through Lucado’s brief (usually two to three page) introspections, it all comes alive again, and the story stops being a story and becomes the meaning behind our lives and the greatest relationship to ever define mankind: the unrelenting love and passion of Christ. It’s brief but all encompassing, thought provoking, moving, and above all worshipful and peaceful. A must for all Christians and the holiday season.

– Frances Carden

Follow my reviews on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/xombie_mistress

Follow my reviews on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FrancesReviews

Frances Carden
Latest posts by Frances Carden (see all)