By Donna Traywick
Mt. Olivet News
My last year at Ole Miss about 1958-59, I had a professor that professed to be an atheist. He
stayed on us Christian students about this is not true, that is not true. Believe it or not, we talked
back.
I had written a cantata for Mt. Olivet and got brave enough to invite him. Never did I dream in a
million years that a professor from Ole Miss, who is an atheist, would come to a little ole country
church. He came!
When it was over, he stayed for food and fellowship. I’m sure we never changed his mind, but he
was touched. We gave him an overview of the whole Bible. Included in this cantata was the
following reading: Don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger. He deserves to learn to crawl, walk,
run, fly his kite on Calvary Hill, with his cousin John. When he was 12 years old, he deserves to
go up to the feast of Passover with his parents. When he got lost. When finally, after a three day
search, he said “doing about my father’s business.”
Don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger: he would never have 12 disciples, who carried the word
onto the world. We would never have the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, acts, John 1,2&3
and revelations.
Don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger, he would never have been able to please his mother by
changing water into wine, at the wedding in Cana. This was his first miracle.
Don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger: he performed 37 more miracles that are recorded in
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Some of which are: healing Peter's mother-in-law, raising a
widow son in Nain, or Jared’s daughter. How happy Mary and Martha were when Jesus raised
his friend Lazarus from the dead.
If you leave baby Jesus in the manger, a little boy would never have had the thrill of dividing his
lunch of two fishes and five loaves with more than 5,000. He was also able to meet Jesus face-to-
face. (This miracle was recorded in all four gospels.) If you leave baby Jesus in the manger, we
would not have known that Jesus walked on water as told in Matthew, Mark, and John.
If you leave, baby Jesus in the manger, many people would have remained blonde. Some were a
blind man at Bethesdia and a blind demonic mute. Sight being brought back by spitting in dirt
and rubbing in his eyes. To print all the miracles, if all were known would contain volumes if
you leave, baby Jesus in the manger, he would have never taught more than 41 parables of which

some are: lamp under a bowl, two debtors, good Samaritan, lost sheep. He leaves 99, the lost
coin, the prodigal son. Perhaps there were many more not recorded.
If you leave, baby Jesus in a manger, there is absolutely no one who would endure the pain and
agony of dying on a cross for us. Remember, God sent himself in the form of baby Jesus to die
for our sins. Why? Because he loves us. So, friends, we have celebrated the first coming of Jesus
with songs, gifts, and festivities. Don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas 2025.
Jesus is coming again. He might come back before the end! Let’s be ready!
Ponder this: Joy to the World was written about the second coming, not the first. It is so perfect
for both. Will people think we’re crazy, when we sing Joy to the World at Easter. Let’s try!