They were alone. Rejected by so many. To those around them, their situation was a joke, a farce, a cover up.
But in that cold, dirty stable, beside a manger full of straw and the smell of animals permitting the air, Mary gave birth to the Savior.
This was love come down. God reaching out to His people. It was the dawn of redeeming grace.
So often we expect Christmas to be perfect, comfortable, clean and everyone happy, when the first Christmas was far from the picture of perfection. God’s Son was born in the dirtiest conditions with peace nowhere to be found around Him.
But that’s why He came.
To redeem the dirty, broken, lost and abandoned. He came for the king in the palace who sought to kill Him. He came for the innkeeper who had no room for the Savior’s parents. He came for terrified shepherd’s as they tended the sacrificial lambs in the fields when the host of angels brought the news of Rescuer’s arrival.
Maybe this Christmas you’re alone. Maybe your feeling lost. Maybe your grasping for perfection.
Your Rescuer has come and brought redeeming grace and love down to you.
Erin C. Peters 