The Crap & Splendor of Christmas

Horoscope readers
Low-income laborers
Teenage mother
Uneducated trade worker
Pungent farm animals

These were the guests of the very first Christmas party.  They translate as:
The Magi
The shepherds
Mary
Joseph
The animals

The scene is so cutesy in the paintings, but when you think of someone giving birth in this dark, unsanitized setting, you can see it wasn't pretty at all.

The God of the universe, the majestic One, the Creator.  How does He come?  Like this?  Seriously?

Here's why it matters: one of the greatest gifts we get from Jesus life on this earth was that He showed us the Father.  He made it crystal clear, just what God was actually like.

And here we see God's heart: One that humbles Himself so as to be with us in our life-in the midst of all it's crap and splendor.  The Father is FOR us.

This is a tiding of comfort...and joy.

Merry Christmas.