By making the manger this Christmas, we can evocatively express some fundamental truths of our faith. Francis of Assisi started this tradition in Greccio eight hundred years ago, beautifully portraying the closeness of the Incarnate God who became one with humanity and walks alongside us. Indeed, “with the simplicity of that sign, Saint Francis carried out a great work of evangelization”[1]. «Thanks to St Francis, the Christian people were able to perceive that at Christmas God truly became the “Emmanuel,” the God-with-us from whom no barrier nor any distance can separate us. Thus, in that Child, God became close to each one of us, so close that we are able to speak intimately to him and engage in a trusting relationship of deep affection with him, just as we do with any newborn baby»[2]. In that humble manger, nestled between the ox and the donkey, Francis of Assisi invites all to “feel” and “touch” the nearness, poverty, and tenderness of the Child Jesus who has placed “his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). “God appears as a child, for us to take into our arms. Beneath weakness and frailty, he conceals his power” (Ads 8). Indeed, “in the child Jesus, God…