Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 2:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 And while they (Mary and Joseph) were there, the time came for her (Mary’s) baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn son (Jesus). She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

This post is to be “published” on Christmas Day of 2021.

I don’t think Jesus was born on December 25th or several days after the winter solstice or something. Many centuries ago, someone said, “December 25th is it!” That stuck, so here we are.

Here we have a young (14 or 15?) woman giving birth in a dirty cave. She wrapped her baby in tattered cloth gathered from here and there. She put the baby in a dirty feed trough.

No, she wasn’t just any poor young mother. Angels had visited her and her husband. There were other things that happened before that made this more than just another baby born to another poor woman.

Still, we have these words recorded for us and passed down through 20 centuries so we can read them and find some comfort in them. Thank you God.