For Christians, one of the most popular scenes over the Advent/Christmas season is that of the Nativity. It is on cards, all manner of decorations, maybe on a wooden silhouette Nativity scene in front yards and church properties. It is often a beautiful, serene scene of Mary, with Joseph in the background, and the manger with a sleeping baby, a scene of peace, tranquility and calm. Often there is a donkey, and maybe a sheep or two. As lovely as these are, I am not convinced that this is the way it would have looked.
As you know, Joseph was from the line of King David, and David was from Bethlehem, so Joseph had to register in Bethlehem of Judea as it is the hometown of his tribal lineage. They had to travel there to be counted, so they could pay taxes. Bethlehem is a small hill town sitting on a ridge near the Judaean desert, about six miles south of Jerusalem and about 65 miles south of Nazareth. In those days traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a six-day journey. The terrain is hilly, rocky, rough, and dotted with low shrubs and trees — not an easy journey.
The town would have been swarming with travellers, while Mary would have been sweaty, tired, and ready to burst. They ended up being offered a place where the animals lived, in the back space of a home. The home would have been noisy, with the sounds of the household overhead, and the noise of the animals they shared space with. It was not clean; it was not quiet. No running water, no conveniences. Just basic living; cramped, dirty and smelly!
There she gives birth to the Saviour of the world. No nurses in scrubs to help out, no anesthesia, just the clothes they brought with them to mop up with. Out of necessity, Jesus, God in human flesh, was laid in an animal-feeding trough because it was probably the softest place they had to lay Him.
In the fields surrounding Bethlehem, that night, shepherds were watching over their sheep, like they did every night. They were protecting their flock from predators, trying to get some sleep in the craggy, ravine-like valley of Bethlehem at night, the lowliest of the low, being visited by a multitude of angels.
These godly messengers proclaim the birth of the Saviour of the world. This is the news the nation of Israel had been waiting to hear for centuries, given to ordinary men doing menial work. So, with dirty fingernails and dusty clothing, worn and tired, yet determined to find the one the angels spoke about, they go. We are not told of the kind of reception they received, but it is easy to imagine the confusion and bewilderment of how they explained themselves to Joseph and Mary.
This story is made more amazing when we realize that God stepped into a broken, dirty, common, real world. It is good for us to imagine ourselves in that situation, to feel the emotions of two people given a choice to make. A very hard choice. It is good for us to smell the manure, hear the animal sounds, and see the sweat and dirt of the story! The Creator of the universe came to us among common people who were a lot like us, in the most un-kingly way. Humble. Vulnerable.
Hearing the real, nitty-gritty, raw, and beautiful story of Jesus’ birth makes me love Christmas all the more, because our lives are not a Hallmark card scene either. There are really difficult situations that we find ourselves in; our lives are not clean and managed well. They are messy, smelly at times, and covered in the dirt of others’ lives.
Never in Mary’s wildest dreams could she have imagined what her life would hold, nor could she imagine the life and death her child would have to bear. Her faith that God was driving this helps her to ponder and take deep into her heart the knowledge that the God of her ancestors had a plan. What a magnificent plan it was.
As we go through this season of Advent and Christmas, there will be things that will be hard for us to go though, there may be long dark nights of journeying, you may feel alone with no support, life may get messy and dirty. The Holy Family had these and more to deal with, yet they knew that God was with them all the way, never leaving them.
The same is true for you — you are never alone in any of your struggles. The light has come into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Blessings for this season.
