Preparing our hearts to share news of Joy

Mary did you know. ..? 🎵

*The night is still when Joseph creaks open that stable door. As he does, a chorus of barn animals makes discordant note of the intrusion. The stench is pungent and humid, as there have not been enough hours in the day to tend the guests, let alone the livestock. A small oil lamp, lent them by the innkeeper, flickers to dance shadows on the walls. A disquieting place for a woman in the throes of childbirth. Far from home. Far from family.

They stare in awe at the baby Jesus, whose heavy eyelids begin to close. It has been a long journey. The King is tired. And so, with barely a ripple of notice, God stepped into the warm lake of humanity. Without protocol and without pretension. 

Where you would have expected angels, there were only flies. Where you would have expected heads of state, there were only donkeys, a few haltered cows, a nervous ball of sheep, a tethered camel. 

Except for Joseph, there was no one to share Mary’s pain, or her joy. Yes, there were angels announcing the Savior’s arrival—but only to a band of shepherds. And yes, a magnificent star shone in the sky to mark his birthplace—but only three foreigners bothered to look up and follow it. Thus, in the little town of Bethlehem . . . that one silent night . . . the royal birth of God’s Son tiptoed quietly by . . . as the world slept. 

* ken gire. Moments with the  Saviour