no better place

There was no better place.

The city of Bethlehem was crowded, every makeshift inn filled. I'm sure Joseph was beside himself with worry--his young wife in labor, both of them scared, far from Mary's mother who would have been the one to walk her daughter through the birth of her first child. Mary had likely been having contractions for many hours of their journey. Then, as the icing on the cake, the only place available for his young bride was a stable.

Can you imagine what it would have been like, trying to make a place in the barn for the birth of a baby? I wonder if Mary and Joseph thought they had gotten something wrong. They hadn't misunderstood Gabriel, had they? Surely a barn was to wrong place for the Son of God to be born. I wonder if they thought they had failed Him that night. Those thoughts couldn't have stayed around for too long, though. They would have soon been replaced with the issue at hand--Joseph kneeling beside his young wife, watching her go through labor in that barn, his mind fully absorbed with trying to figure out how he could help her.

Once the baby arrived, there was no better place to lay Him than in a feed trough. I can imagine Joseph going through the hay, picking out any weeds that were a bit more prickly, trying to find a clean place. Again, I wonder if the new parents feared they were failing. Did they question if maybe they were ruining God's plan? Was there really no better place than a feed trough?

But then, I imagine their questions and doubts faded into the background when the first curious face appeared at the entrance, a shepherd with an unbelievable story of a night sky filled with a mighty choir of angels singing praises, directing them to find this baby. These shepherds were so amazed by the message they had been given that they had left their flocks to come find this baby. There was no better place for these shepherds to come visit than a barn, no place they would have been made more welcome than next to that feed trough.

It may have seemed like God's plan was messed up, but in reality there was no better place for Jesus to have been born. How better for the King to show He had come for the lowly than to choose a barn over a palace? What better place for the Good Shepherd to be presented? What better way for the Almighty God to show that the Savior had come in humility than for His first bed to be a feed trough? What better way to show that all are welcomed by the King than for the shepherds to be His first visitors?

There was no better place.

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