I thought I might do a little something, this year, that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I’m going to take the story of Jesus’s birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go…

and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. ~ Luke 2:7 NIV

Of all the things Mary may have imagined for the birth of this Child-who-would-be-King, there are a couple of things that were very doubtfully among them:

1. There would be no place to actually give birth to Him, that had, you know, maybe a bed. Or a cot. Or another woman who could step in as a mid-wife. Or another person at all, besides Joseph.
2. The place she would lay the Savior of the World would be used by farm animals, minutes earlier, as a dinner buffet.

These are not really the hallmarks of royalty.

But, it’s quite likely these realities, and their incongruous nature, were but fleeting misgivings as the later stages of labor set in. The quicker Joseph could get her settled in the hay, get the manger cleaned out, and muster up some clean cloths, the better. Nothing else would have mattered.

Then (hours later? minutes?), spent and sweaty, despite the cold of the desert night, and with only the help of her faithful Joseph, she delivered a son. No fanfare, save the gentle night sounds of barn animals. No trumpets, save the cry of a child that split the night. Just two parents in complete and total awe of their newborn.

And of all the things that she’d imagined about the birth of her son, there are a couple of things that were very doubtfully among them:

1. The baby that was completely God would also be completely human.
2. Her capacity for love could be completely limitless.

These realities, however, were likely but fleeting thoughts, for as she gazed into the inky depths of her Son’s perfect eyes, I’m betting she caught a glimpse of the real hallmarks of royalty that had nothing to do with their surroundings. Bringing Him to her breast, I’m certain that nothing else mattered.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. ~ Isaiah 40:5 KJV