life. faithful.

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 throug...