An Unexpected ChristmasSample

Day 7: A Barn

A barn or a stable… Jesus may have been born in either of these. After all, we only know that Mary placed Jesus in a manger—a feeding trough—but Luke’s account of Jesus’s birth does not tell us where the manger was. There’s one thing we can reasonably assume: it wasn’t somewhere Joseph or Mary would have expected.

The place Jesus was born had the bare minimum (shelter) and lacked anything extra (comfort). Mary and Joseph hoped for comfort and even looked for it, but there just wasn’t anything available.

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 guest room available for them. (Luke 2:6–7)

Sometimes we hope for comfort—a little more than what we need—but we don’t always get it.

Your Christmas may be the bare minimum this year. Yes, you made it through a difficult year, but you don’t see much in terms of comfort. Your income may be down, which means you’re not in a position to be as generous as you like to be, not to mention that connection time with friends and family will be limited or not even possible.

As we see in the Christmas story, God doesn’t need people to be comfortable to be at work.

How could God still be at work in your life despite not having what you expected during this season?