The Miracle of Christmas
The first Christmas Day is a blessed mystery to us all, an image which changes with our age and life experiences.
It is only written about in two of the Gospels, Matthew and Luke.
In seeking holy wisdom, amid the hubbub of the Christmas season, I asked myself what that first Christmas must have been like. This requires that you put aside your childhood memories of Christmas, as holy and happy as that may be. Put aside television images of Charlie Brown, Rudolph and the Grinch. Put aside the memories you’ve made for your own children, as holy and expensive as they may be, and envision travel 2,000 years ago.
A decree went out from Caesar to number and tax all citizens of the Roman Empire. Joseph, a carpenter, newly married, with a wife in her third trimester of pregnancy, must travel to his family’s hometown to be counted. It is not known if they traveled alone, with attendants or in a group.
It is a good bet he had a modest purse, and when they reached the town he could not afford the kind of room that would be private enough for a woman to give birth. So, it is not surprising that they ended up in the stable. In that day, a stable was the second most private indoor space because the owner had valuable livestock and supplies in there and it was not open to the public. If you have ever owned livestock you know you don’t want anyone going into your barn.
This had very important consequences in that when the shepherds came to give homage, the stable was the natural place to look, because it was where every traveler would first go to “tie up” his livestock. In Matthew, by the time the Wise Men got there, the text refers to visiting the Child and Mary in a house, which would make sense, since by one or two days later the inn had more room. The Wise Men, who brought gifts, stabled their livestock and knew where to look for the baby.
Having been in a modern labor suite four times, I can imagine what a night that first Christmas must have been in that stable. If you’ve ever been in a stable, you know that keeping it clean is a lot of work. The Romans used concrete in construction on a grand scale, but I doubt that the stable floor was concrete with drainage. That means it was dirt with hay, manure, and urine, all mixed up. If there was lots of manure stacked and composting, it was probably very warm where the Baby was delivered. If there was lots of hay and no roof leaks, then it was dry. If this was not the case, it was a very “dirty” delivery room.
And she was going to deliver! Whether she walked or rode to Bethlehem, the travel may well have brought on labor.
Who helped her deliver the baby? Joseph, attendants that came with them, someone who traveled with them to Bethlehem or some local woman who helped with deliveries? I guess Mary may have done “it all” on her own, but I doubt it.
Labor is exhausting work. Tying off the umbilical cord and making sure the placenta is out: not a one-person job! First births are usually the toughest too, and so is the fatigue afterward! That Mary didn’t get a postpartum infection and the baby survived is a tribute to whoever attended her and the Lord’s plan.
When I think back on my children’s births, I am awed by that beautiful event of that first Christmas. What courage.
According to Webster, a miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. A miracle, in my definition, is the coincidence of multiple events so as to ring up astronomical probabilities such that the occurrence of the event would only have been directed by Love. God is love.
Truth and love are what Jesus was about.
The multitude of events concurring on his birthday would only be summed up as the Miracle of Christmas.