Brrr.

The snow has hit MN with a fury this week.  It is really winter now, and I think it is a shock to most of us since November was so mild.  But the return of winter emphasizes that Advent is here and Christmas is coming.  Whenever we get a snow storm in December I am also mindful of the level of humanity that Jesus was willing to take on.

Imagine what it truly must have been like to be born in a stable.

Can you think what Mary must have felt like, riding a donkey, 9 months pregnant, for miles and miles during winter?

Can you imagine the frustration of Joseph when inn after inn turned them away? The panic that set in as Mary declared that it was time to have the baby?

Can you imagine the gratitude of one innkeeper sharing a corner of space in the barn?

Can you smell the smells of the animals, the hay and the manure?

Can you know the pain that Mary endured to give birth to her son in a stable?

Can you imagine the cold?  the worry? the joy?

It is snowing outside now and it helps me leave this 21 century and imagine what it truly must have been like on that Christmas night.  This isn't a birth in a warm room with an epidural and a fetal monitor.  This is messy and immensely human.  And God choose THAT to enter the world.  Jesus didn't come as a pampered prince, he came among the animals.

But his humble beginnings didn't diminish who he was and is.  Even the stars and the heavens announced his birth. 

Take a moment tonight and gaze out into the darkness and the cold and imagine the reality of the Christmas story.