Love is a baby sleeping in the straw

 

LOVE – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

I have always adored the nativity story. When I was a child, I think I was mostly drawn to the sweet scene. I loved setting up our family’s nativity scene (which we called a crèche). There’s something so wonderful and fairy tale-like about a special baby being born in a cozy stable with soothing ambient lighting and peaceful animals peeking in.

 Only it wasn’t a fairy tale. It wasn’t cozy. It wasn’t really even a stable. It was more like a cave or grotto. It was probably cold and damp and dark and messy. And the animals were probably noisy and stinky.

 

Most of all, the baby was much more than special.

 The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God squished His divinity into a tiny baby to join mankind on this planet. He was born into the most humble of settings. There was no room for His expectant mother and her betrothed to settle into more comfortable and (Dare I say it?) respectable accommodations for His birth. 

And He was born to a young teenager, who was still a Virgin – even though most of the folks in her tiny hometown probably suspected something much more scandalous was afoot.

 

What a story. HIS story.

 This was the night that divided history into BC and AD. Our entire system of historical timekeeping hinges on His arrival.

 And this was the night that changed the world forever. God became man. And He was born to die, so we might live.

 That’s love.

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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