Mary Had a Little Lamb
Acrylic 36" x 48"
I started painting this live, at an event called Christmas for the City, where fifty churches came together to love on Winston Salem, NC, and I finished it this Christmas morning. The event was free for everyone and had dancers, musicians, singers, crafts for the kids, free cookies and snacks. Artists would be paired with ministries, and paint what the ministry represented. I was blessed to find out that the ministry I would be painting beside at the event was called, the Shepherd's Center. Then later in the week, I was telling a new friend that I would be painting for a ministry that serves Senior Citizens, and she said, "the thing I love about Senior Citizens are they are so vulnerable, like Jesus when He came as a Baby". Not too long after that...I asked someone to pray for me, that I would "paint God's heart" for the event and she said to me, "The Lord is your Shepherd, you are His sheep and you hear His voice." When I told her how confirming that was to me, she was blessed that God had used her...and said SHE needed that. When I got to the event, before I even put a drop of paint on the canvas, a worshiper in a room right beside me, was warming up and he started singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb." I got so excited, I started jumping up and down. When he came out of the room, I asked him why he sang that and he said he had no idea, but I knew why! God used so many to confirm that He wanted me to paint this and it blessed me. It was the body being the body...each of them were just being themselves, yet God used them all to touch and encourage me. He was confirming His will for this painting. I felt like Mary, and how she pondered all these things in her heart. Interestingly, I had to drive two hours to the event in pouring rain. I was thinking of Mary and Joseph, and how it must of felt to be carrying the King of Kings, but have to travel so far to Bethlehem to just be told there was no place for them. I unloaded in the rain, then parked my car and walked back, it was still raining. I had been asked to come, because 2 artists had backed out, and they were short an artist. When I got there, my painting spot was the furthest place from the front door. I was given the least desirable place to paint in the whole convention center. I had also been told to bring art to share, and that I could interact with people looking at my art, but my painting spot again was the longest distance from where my art hung. The whole time I was walking back and forth, setting up...I was saying to God, I will be faithful to YOU, no matter what. As I painted, I met the most amazing people. A family came up, and one of their daughters was so beautiful in the Spirit. I was compelled to prophesy to her, I could "see" her, and looking at her purity, made me cry. I saw her loving on children, especially orphans. Her mom told me, with tears in her eyes, that she had just come from a mission trip to Mexico where they had helped in an orphanage. I thought to myself later, this young woman was what I imagine Mary would have been like. The young woman wrote me later and said that so much of what I had said to her confirmed what God had been speaking to her. My most favorite people though, were the children! They would come up and stare with wonder, then tell me how they liked my painting. I would ask them to guess the title, giving them little hints, they would get so excited when they figured it out, usually before the parents did. I pray that this painting blesses you as you look with the eyes of a child on the innocent face of the Lamb of God and remember that He was the King of Kings, yet He humbled Himself and became the ultimate Sacrifice for everyone that will recieve HIM! And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:9-12 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6-7 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29 KJV |
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Why was Jesus born in a manger?
Luke 2:7 “and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Have you ever stopped to consider why God allowed His only son to be born in a lowly manger? Could not an omniscient, loving, all powerful God have arranged a room at the inn? Or even better, could he not arrange for Jesus to be born in a palace with midwives, servants and clean water? Can you imagine bringing your wife into an animal stall to give birth, in the dark, without help? Can you imagine wrapping your son in swaddling cloth to protect his skin from the hay and placing him in a feed trough as a makeshift cradle? Rest assured, the author of all creation did not fall asleep at the wheel and overlook the hardship that this was to the parents. This choice was deliberate with a clear intentionality and purpose.
Many know that Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem:
Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
This was understood by the Pharisees at the time of Jesus and is referred to in several gospel accounts (Matt 2:5, John 7:42). God arranged for Joseph and Mary to be in Bethlehem in response to the Roman census. Buy why Bethlehem? It might be tempting to conclude that it was to honor David. It is likely that the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem were raising lambs in the very fields that King David, as a boy watched over his sheep and composed Psalms to honor his God. In fact the shepherds may have been on the same land that Boaz redeemed for Naomi and passed on to his son Jesse, David’s father. However, I contend that this is not the reason for choosing Bethlehem. Many do not realize that Micah further prophesied that kingship would come to the “Daughter of Jerusalem” at Migdal Eder:
Micah 4:8 “As for you, O watchtower of the flock [Hebrew Migdal Eder], O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem."
Migdal Eder was a watchtower located in the northern part of Bethlehem built to protect the Temple flocks.1 “During lambing season the sheep were brought there from the fields, as the lower level functioned as the birthing room for sacrificial lambs.”2 Priestly shepherds “would wrap the newborn lambs in swaddling clothes” and place them in a manger “until they calmed down”3 to keep them “without defect”4, suitable to be sacrificial lambs for the sin of the Israelites. Bethlehem was special because the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem raised lambs for the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The shepherds who heard the angelic choir and came to see the baby Jesus were certainly familiar with the technique to birth a sacrificial lamb, and were likely puzzled by why a baby was birthed in the manner and location of a sacrificial lamb. In fact the angels did not have to tell the shepherds precisely where to go in Bethlehem to find Jesus, because there was only one manger where sacrificial lambs were birthed, the cave under the watch tower of Migdal Edar.5
With hindsight we can clearly see that the manner of Jesus’ birth foreshadowed the purpose for Jesus coming into the world:
John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!””
1 Peter 1:18-20 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Before Jesus had taken his first breath God had decided that his life was to be given as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. God testified to his intent by having Jesus be born in the manner and location of the sacrificial lambs of the temple just as the prophet Micah proclaimed.
1 Alfred Edersheim, The life and times of Jesus the Messiah, book 2, pg 131
2 Charles E. McCracken, For you and me, Israel My Glory, Nov/Dec 2008 pg 25.
3 Jimmy DeYoung, “Jimmy’s Prophetic Perspective on the News,” Dec 23, 2005.
4 Leviticus 4:32http://www.bible-truth.org/BirthPlaceofJesus.html
5 Abrams, C. P. Where was the birthplace of the Lord Jesus?,
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tim/study/Why%20a%20manger.pdf
Luke 2:7 “and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Have you ever stopped to consider why God allowed His only son to be born in a lowly manger? Could not an omniscient, loving, all powerful God have arranged a room at the inn? Or even better, could he not arrange for Jesus to be born in a palace with midwives, servants and clean water? Can you imagine bringing your wife into an animal stall to give birth, in the dark, without help? Can you imagine wrapping your son in swaddling cloth to protect his skin from the hay and placing him in a feed trough as a makeshift cradle? Rest assured, the author of all creation did not fall asleep at the wheel and overlook the hardship that this was to the parents. This choice was deliberate with a clear intentionality and purpose.
Many know that Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem:
Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
This was understood by the Pharisees at the time of Jesus and is referred to in several gospel accounts (Matt 2:5, John 7:42). God arranged for Joseph and Mary to be in Bethlehem in response to the Roman census. Buy why Bethlehem? It might be tempting to conclude that it was to honor David. It is likely that the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem were raising lambs in the very fields that King David, as a boy watched over his sheep and composed Psalms to honor his God. In fact the shepherds may have been on the same land that Boaz redeemed for Naomi and passed on to his son Jesse, David’s father. However, I contend that this is not the reason for choosing Bethlehem. Many do not realize that Micah further prophesied that kingship would come to the “Daughter of Jerusalem” at Migdal Eder:
Micah 4:8 “As for you, O watchtower of the flock [Hebrew Migdal Eder], O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem."
Migdal Eder was a watchtower located in the northern part of Bethlehem built to protect the Temple flocks.1 “During lambing season the sheep were brought there from the fields, as the lower level functioned as the birthing room for sacrificial lambs.”2 Priestly shepherds “would wrap the newborn lambs in swaddling clothes” and place them in a manger “until they calmed down”3 to keep them “without defect”4, suitable to be sacrificial lambs for the sin of the Israelites. Bethlehem was special because the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem raised lambs for the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The shepherds who heard the angelic choir and came to see the baby Jesus were certainly familiar with the technique to birth a sacrificial lamb, and were likely puzzled by why a baby was birthed in the manner and location of a sacrificial lamb. In fact the angels did not have to tell the shepherds precisely where to go in Bethlehem to find Jesus, because there was only one manger where sacrificial lambs were birthed, the cave under the watch tower of Migdal Edar.5
With hindsight we can clearly see that the manner of Jesus’ birth foreshadowed the purpose for Jesus coming into the world:
John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!””
1 Peter 1:18-20 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Before Jesus had taken his first breath God had decided that his life was to be given as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. God testified to his intent by having Jesus be born in the manner and location of the sacrificial lambs of the temple just as the prophet Micah proclaimed.
1 Alfred Edersheim, The life and times of Jesus the Messiah, book 2, pg 131
2 Charles E. McCracken, For you and me, Israel My Glory, Nov/Dec 2008 pg 25.
3 Jimmy DeYoung, “Jimmy’s Prophetic Perspective on the News,” Dec 23, 2005.
4 Leviticus 4:32http://www.bible-truth.org/BirthPlaceofJesus.html
5 Abrams, C. P. Where was the birthplace of the Lord Jesus?,
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~tim/study/Why%20a%20manger.pdf
