The Manger and Other Stories

A long time ago an Anglo-Saxon poet set in verse the Dream of the Rood. It is a tale told in part from the ‘point of view’ of the Cross (Rood), of how it was felled in a forest, of its intended fate as gibbet for a criminal and of its true destiny as the Cross of Christ. It could be the earliest thing written in English – albeit a kind we could not easily read – that we know. Written, we suppose, to inspire a people, martial and pagan, to accept a new master, the Christ, who is cast as a hero in forms and imagery familiar to them.

Join me on an imaginative journey through the life of Christ viewed from the 'point of view' of different things, starting with, of course, the manger itself. Journey to Jerusalem with the rein of a donkey. See the Wedding of Cana through the view of one of the great jars that stood there. How would it have been to take a 'roof's-eye-view' of the healing of the paralysed man? What would Zacchaeus' conversion have looked like to the Jericho Road? Or imagine you were a pebble carried into Jerusalem with the triumphal entry of the Christ at the start of that momentous week. These and other beautifully written stories are to be found here.

In my own way, I’ve tried to wonder what various stories in the life of Christ might have looked like from these unusual views. The moods and tone change from object to object as we visit different points in the Gospels. I have embellished freely, invented little folklores and thrown in various asides. The greater part of this is fanciful. I hope, though, that I am continuing in a tradition of ‘creative reverence’ to honour words and a message that will outlast my own.

In order the stories are: MANGER(Nativity), ROPE (12-year-old Jesus journeys to Jerusalem), JAR (Wedding Feast at Cana), ROOF (Healing of the Paralysed Man), GRASS (Feeding of the 5000), MUSTARD TREE (About parables), WATER IN THE WELL (Samaritan woman), JERICHO ROAD (Zacchaeus), COIN (Taxes to Caesar question), PEBBLE (Holy Week), NET (Resurrection encounter).