Bryant Wright, Founder
“…and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough.” Luke 2:7 NCV
Read that verse again slowly.
This is the New Century Version’s telling of one of the most familiar scenes in all of Scripture. And if it sounds a little different from the Christmas story you remember, you’re not alone. Many of us grew up picturing swaddling clothes– soft, clean, and carefully wrapped around a newborn. We imagine a quaint wooden manger, glowing with warmth and wonder.
But that’s not the picture Luke gives us.
Luke says Jesus was wrapped in pieces of cloth – strips of fabric, more like rags than a baby blanket. And the manger? Not a charming wooden cradle, but a rough feeding trough used by farm animals. No mother would choose such a setting for her child. No parent would prefer a stable over a warm room.
But Mary didn’t have a choice. There was no room for them anywhere else.
The greater question, though, is this:
Why would God the Father choose this for His own Son?
The answer goes deeper than the fulfillment of prophecy– though prophecy was beautifully, perfectly fulfilled that night. Perhaps God wanted His Son to enter the world through the very kind of circumstances He came to redeem.
Jesus needed to know what it meant to be human.
He needed to understand homelessness as His family fled to Egypt.
He needed to experience hunger in the wilderness.
He needed to feel grief at the death of loved ones.
He needed to face rejection, ridicule, persecution, and ultimately death itself.
He came not simply to observe humanity, but to enter it, fully and completely. To walk the roads we walk. To bear the burdens we bear. To face the suffering we face.
Because if He was going to die for mankind… He would first live with mankind.
And that’s the heart of Christmas. Not a sanitized nativity scene or a glitter-covered greeting card, but the shocking humility of the Son of God choosing the lowest place so He could lift us to the highest.
The real Christmas story is raw, rugged, and breathtakingly beautiful.
God with us – right in the mess.
DIG DEEPER
Read “What is the True Meaning of Christmas?” at GotQuestions.org
