My Savior was born WHERE??!

A few days ago, my devotions were focused on the events immediately surrounding the birth of Jesus. Maybe it is because I am just a few days removed from my own birth story, but I was struck with the details of this story in a way I never have been before.

Toward the end of my pregnancy, many of you know how absolutely uncomfortable I was. It hurt to walk, sit, sleep… anything, really!  But Mary. Sweet Mary was riding on a donkey, in the final days of her pregnancy, a distance of at least 80 miles!! When I get the chance to meet Mary in heaven, I don’t think I’ll complain to her about the aches and pains I experienced!

And then when it comes time to deliver her sweet child, she is far away from home in a town packed with travelers.  “There was no room for them in the inn.” So baby Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was born in a stable. My mom often asked me as I was growing up if I was born in a barn. Jesus was!  Mary didn’t have the luxury of a large hospital room, a crew of nurses at her disposal, and a doctor to deliver her baby. She had some hay and maybe a cow or a donkey.

As I read the birth story again, it was the cleanliness that struck me more than anything. As I prepared to deliver Kate, the nurses prepared the room for the doctor. We had some student nurses in the room, so they went about the preparations as they were supervised by other nurses. One of the students was getting all the doctors tools ready on a table. I watched her unwrap the ‘kit’… she was very careful to not touch anything except the outer wrapping. However, because she wasn’t wearing gloves, the whole kit had to be removed and a new one brought in.  The delivery room is a sterile environment!!  Stables?? Not so much!

Often, when we think about that stable, we picture that pretty little nativity scene sitting on the mantle. A nice shelter. Mary and Joseph sitting over their baby boy. Angels, shepherds, and Magi visiting. And the clean, well groomed animals sitting outside watching it all happen.  But think about it! This stable was not prepared for them in expectation of their arrival.  Mary and Joseph couldn’t find a room anywhere in Bethlehem. They settled for a stable. A stable that housed animals. Certainly they had to step over piles of poo and endure all the lovely smells that animals create. They probably had to push aside the cows and sheep and donkeys to make room for Mary. Did she lie on a nice, clean bed of hay??  No. She lay on the hay that was already being used by said animals. Dirty. It was dirty. Then Jesus was born. He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger – a manger used to feed the animals. But now it was a bed for the savior of the world. 

My Savior, my Jesus, was born in a dirty, stinky animal barn.  But, in the end, his blood was shed to clean me from something even dirtier and stinkier… my sin. Thank you, Jesus, for coming to earth as a baby, for being born in a stable, for living the life of a mortal man, and for giving the ultimate gift of your life to save me from my own life.