So I started working in the summers at the age of 10, mowing lawns. The first summer, I mowed my own lawn. Then when I turned 11, a friend of my mother asked me to mow her lawn. From there my business started to grow until, by the time I was 14, I was mowing about 8 lawns a week. At $10 per lawn, you can imagine I was making a lot of money for 14-year-old kid.

I liked electronics and I spent most of my money on computer parts and stereo equipment. However, I’d been saving for a big entertainment center where I could neatly store all of my equipment. Just think 1990s Ikea faux-wood entertainment center and you’ll know what I’m talking about. I needed to work a few more weeks to be able to afford it, but I was on my way to buying it.

Every year, my family went to the beach in August, so I mowed my lawns directly before and directly after we came back. When I got home from the beach, I saw that the store had a sale where they dropped the price of the entertainment center by like 25%, so all of a sudden I had enough money to buy it. So I go to the drawer of my dresser where I kept my money in one of those American Express traveler’s checks envelops (now I’m really dating myself), but it was gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

It didn’t make any sense to me because that’s where I always left my money and nobody broke into our house, so I didn’t know what happened to it. Eventually, I finally resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have simply start over and re-earn all the money, which I did in a few months and didn’t think about it again, until we were unpacking all of our stuff for Christmas. So I helped my dad get all the boxes out of the basement and we were trimming the tree.

I opened up the box that had our stockings in it and the stockings were at the very bottom of the box and they were at the very back of all the stuff in our basement. As started pulling out the stockings, I felt something in the bottom of mine. So I reached into the stocking and there at the very bottom was American Express envelope with all my money in it.

So I turned to my dad and I said, “Hey, where did you find my money and why did you go through all the trouble of putting it in my stocking?” And he looked befuddled (which is how my dad looks most of the time), but he was like I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said, “Remember over the summer when I lost that money after we got back from the beach. It was at the bottom of my stocking.” He goes, “Oh yeah. That’s weird. Well, maybe your mom put it there. You should go thank her.”

So I go to my mom and said, “Thanks for finding my money. Why did you put it in my stocking?” She looked at me like I was an alien. She literally had no clue what I was talking about. Unlike my father who actually had a memory of me losing that money, she did not. When I pressed her on it, she got mad at me and said, “Maybe it was you sisters?” It wasn’t my sisters because they were way too young.

To this day, I don’t know how that American Express envelope found its way into my Christmas stocking, but what I do know is that discovery reintroduced into my life just a little bit of the magic of Christmas that I had lost from my childhood. My goal tonight is to do the same for you. I want you to walk away from here feeling touched by some of the magic of this evening.

During Advent, we’ve been doing a series called Christmas Tableaus. A tableau is an illustration, often with religious overtones. If you’ve ever happened upon a tableau scene, it’s usually based off of famous paintings or photographs a scene that has been created with physical models of the objects. In the same way, every story hinges on object that facilitates that story coming to life.

Each week we’ve been talking about objects from Jesus’ birth narrative that have particular significance to us as Christians. They tell us interesting information about the person of Jesus, who he was and how we are supposed to live as Christians. We’ve talked about Zechariah’s tablet, the sheep being tended by shepherds, the star over Bethlehem, the treasure chest of wisemen with the gold, frankincense and myrrh. Tonight, we examine the final object of this series—the manger.

Arguably the most iconic of all the items we’ve discussed, Jesus lying in a manger is the most associated image we connect with Christmas Eve as it is the culmination of the story of Jesus’ birth and it’s the focal point of every nativity scene. This is generally how we think of the manger—a very sanitary wooden box that just happens to be the right size for a newborn infant.

In reality, the manger would not have been sanitary nor would it have been especially designed for an infant. A manger is a trough which acts as a rack to hold food and fodder for animals. Most 1^st century homes in Palestine had a room where their animals could come inside at night when it was cold. The manger or trough would allow the animals to eat when they were hungry.

Therefore, unlike this trough, the one in which Jesus slept was very dirty as all kinds of livestock would have been sticking their mouths in the trough to eat. I’m sure they would have thrown a little bit of hay on there for good measure, but it’s important to understand Jesus’ first night of sleep in this world was defined by filth and squalor.

This is quite the contrast with our world of luxury baby cribs where you can literally monitor your baby’s breath and heart rate. I remember filling my boy’s rooms with books and toys, getting everything picture perfect. None of that was done for Jesus and yet he would grow up to become the leader of the largest religion on earth.

Indeed, the manger itself is really a symbol of Jesus’ humble origins. He is supposed to grow up to be this great king and yet he is born into the life of a lowly commoner. But his humble origins is only scratching the surface of why the manger matters. Part of what the manger reflects to us is a paradox of human life. On the one hand, human life is amazingly versatile, resilient and enduring in even the most difficult of circumstances. There were so many factors working against Jesus, and yet, he beat the odds and prevailed.

At the same time, Jesus in the manger represents how extraordinarily fragile life can be. A little baby needs so much care in order to survive. One wrong move or a sickness, can lead to his death. The story of Jesus’ birth is a reflection of that paradox. Jesus’ birth is a reminder of in spite of how challenging, cruel and unfair the world can be, God’s love will be victorious, even when it seems like there is literally no hope of that happening at all.

In fact, to really convey to you a deeper sense of both the incredible fragility and resiliency of life and how Mary might of have felt on Christmas Eve, I want to share a story with you about a group of men in Syria who are known as the White Helmets. Beginning in 2014, as the civil war in Syria continued to drag on, volunteers began to organize in parts of the rebel-controlled areas of Syria to rescue survivors after a bombing raid.

The majority of their activity in Syria consists of search and rescue: the evacuation of civilians from dangerous areas, medical evacuation, and essential service delivery. These men risk their lives every day to save people, mostly civilians, who have been targeted by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But rather than tell you about them, I want to show you what it is that they do. This is a scene from an Academy Award winning documentary about their work called The White Helmets.

When I look at this film and the footage of that baby surviving almost impossible odds, I am reminded of Jesus lying in the manger. In my mind, this story reflects the true magic of Christmas Eve and reinforces for me how God’s love will be victorious. And you could see that love in how all of those men were lavishing kisses and adoration upon baby Mahmoud, a true miracle baby like Jesus.

The White Helmets have saved over 125,000 lives, with more than 200 White Helmet volunteers losing their lives in the process. These men perform their work tirelessly in one of the darkest places on earth, and yet, they don’t lose hope. Just like Abu Omar says after saving baby Mahmoud, “Without hope, what good is life? People will die without hope.”

The White Helmets have put their hope into God’s hands so that they can save the Syrian people and, as a result, they have brought much needed light into the world. So I pose the question to you: Where does your hope come from? People find hope in lots of different things. They find hope in their families; they find hope in their friends; they find hope in their work; they find hope in their bank accounts.

I think for many Christians, Jesus lying in the manger on Christmas Eve is a reminder of our hope. A hope that no matter how dark our world may seem with war and poverty and abuse, the light of God’s love will always prevail. It’s a hope that we can hold onto even when the odds are stacked against us and we are feeling crushed by the weight of the world. It’s a hope that tells us to never ever give up because God sees you and loves you. It’s a hope that that is found in the magic of that little baby boy, Jesus, born in the humblest of circumstances, but whose life would change the course of human history.

So as you celebrate Christmas this year with your family and friends, may you have the opportunity to rediscover the magic of this day. Even if the magic of Christmas was lost on you long ago, I hope you might be able to reclaim some of the mystery of Jesus’ birth. Whether it’s by looking at the world through the eyes of an excited child opening presents or experiencing an unexpected conversation over dinner or finding a lost wallet at the bottom of your stocking, I hope tomorrow presents you with the opportunity to fully experience the mystery and the magic of Christmas day. Merry Christmas to you and amen.