jesus: a baby wrapped for all

Luke mentions the baby Jesus as being wrapped in ‘swaddling clothes’ or cloths, twice in five verses (verses 7 and 12, chapter 2). Mary was Luke’s primary source in this gospel narrative. These are a mother’s details. Mary would have made and placed the clothes on her baby. Swaddling clothes are not a sign of poverty.  Religious parents wrapped their children with a prayerful future purpose. These clothes were narrow strips of fine linen about two inches wide. They were wrapped around a baby’s body after the child was gently washed with water very lightly salted; tight from head to foot. The salt symbolized qualities of truth and honesty: the prayer here is that the child would speak words salted with truth. The tight wrapping symbolised the parents’ prayerful desire that the child would grow straight, free from wayward choices and unrighteous life. Only the child’s face was left uncovered so they could breathe. These clothes were left on the newborn only a few days. They represent the parents’ desires for the child: a life of straight paths in word and deed. But there is more here. For the shepherds such wrapping in a manger must call to their minds how they would wrap new born lambs; for mothers such wrapping is an indicator of tender love: Mary made the linen clothes and washed and wrapped her child with her own loving hands. For us such clothes may foreshadow the strips of linen Peter sees when enters the empty tomb. ‘He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.’ (John 20:5) We can go into the manger this Advent, as a shepherd in wonder; as a mother with joy or as people wrapped in his love: the love of a baby and a Saviour. A baby who loves all. What a wonder to be wrapped in. As we approach Christmas and anticipate the excitement of present-giving let’s remember that we have already been given a King who gave it all.