The world would prefer to keep Jesus in a manger.  He is so sweet all wrapped in swaddling clothes.  But the point of Christmas is that God wrapped himself in flesh so that he could come and live among us and be a man as well as God.  So that he could die for us.  So that He could die for our sins.

I love Christmas.  I love the story of the trip to Bethlehem.  I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been to have made that long trip on a donkey when you were eight and a half months pregnant.  And get to Bethlehem and not have a place to stay.  And to have your first baby without any of the women in your family to comfort you.  To tell you what to expect and to help you get through it.

I had my first child like that.  In a strange place in California far away from Oklahoma.  No friends. No family.  And Ken was night flying.  I was alone and didn't have any idea what to expect.  Women end up having to have a  baby alone anyway.  No body else can do it for you.  I had five.

God started His life on earth in the most common of circumstances.   I wonder why.  The creator of the universe could have given Himself every advantage.  But He didn't.  He started His life on earth in such a way that nobody could ever say that He had it easy.

And it went downhill after that.  His entire family had to flee to Egypt to keep Herod from killing him.  Thousands of boy babies were killed just to get at that one baby, who escaped.

God always has a plan.  We sometimes don't know what it is, but God does.  And his plan for Jesus was to put Him on a cross.  For me.  For you.