A pet hate of mine at the moment is how often we trivialise and make fluffy poetry of history, especially concerning the birth of Jesus.
Like, did Mary go into labor the moment she saw Bethlehem?
Were all the people there truly so horrible that they turned out a woman about the have a baby?
Maybe they stayed with some extended family from Joseph and slept in the main house, rather than the granny flat out the back that was full of other visiting relatives?
And maybe the animals were kept indoors at night to protect them from wild animals or the cold? So the manger was actually a safe and warm place to keep a baby?
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 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. ....On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.*
*Luke 2:1-7.21
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