IT'S A BOY!

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her 
firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no 
room for them in the inn  (Lk. 2:6-7).

I remember it like it was yesterday—the doctor asking me if I was OK.  She said, "You look a little 
pale.  Don't you faint on me!"  The funny part was … I wasn't the patient.  My wife was and she was 
giving birth to our firstborn son.

Nothing quite prepares one for the birth of a baby.  I somehow suspect, though, that it's more difficult 
for the mother than the father, but sometimes I wonder.  For Joseph it must have been hectic.  Mary 
was beginning labor pains; they had just arrived in town; and there were no more rooms in the inn.

"You can bed-down in the barn if you want," the innkeeper offered.  For Joseph anywhere with a roof 
was better than out in the elements.  With Mary's labor pains growing more and more frequent, 
Joseph prepared for his first delivery.  I wonder if a midwife was available to help?  Or did Joseph 
have to deliver the "Savior of the world" all by himself?  Just imagine—this rough, tough carpenter 
gently delivering "the deliver."  "It's a boy," he whispered.

Luke goes on to tell us that the baby was wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger.  A 
MANGER!  What a beautiful word!  It brings to mind pictures on Christmas cards.  It calls up tunes of 
yuletide.  It reminds us of the favorite holiday of our youth.  What is it about Jesus that everything He 
touches moves from the mundane and ordinary to the holy and sacred?  The baby Jesus is placed in 
a "feeding trough" that becomes a manger.  Stubble from the field becomes a fresh, soft mattress.  An 
old smelly barn becomes a sacred nursery for the "creator of the world."

What a strange way to welcome God into the world!  Royal births usually make the headlines around 
the world.  Speculations abound about whether it will be a boy or a girl.  Photographers fight to get 
that first picture.  Newspapers rush to print the thrilling stories of the birth of the heir-apparent to the 
throne.  Crowds line the streets to get a glimpse of the future king or queen.

In England, it's the pride of the British Empire.  In Jordan, it's the hope of Arab masses.  In Japan, it's 
the continuation of the centuries-old royal Chrysanthemum line.  In Bethlehem, it was a faint cry in the 
night from an old smelly barn.  What a strange way for God to enter the world!

God always has approached life different from the way most of us do.  The great prophet Isaiah 
recorded truths that we all would do well to remember, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.  "As the heavens are higher than the 
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa 55:8-
9).

For Joseph, the birth of the long-awaited Messiah was just another strange turn in a world-gone-
weird.  For Mary, it was the tenderness of a mother's love and the beginning of the journey of a 
lifetime.

What has Jesus' entering the world meant for your life?

See you next week!