Many of us have left a door open at some point in our childhood only to have our mothers ask, “Were you born in a barn?” Our moms asked this question to remind us that some doors are normally closed. However, Mary would not have asked Jesus this question when he was a child because he was in fact born in a barn.
My children are now grown, and I hope to soon enter the “Grandpa Stage.” I do not know exactly what I would say if one of my children told me my first grandchild was to be born in a barn. I would probably ask, “What are you thinking?” I want my grandchildren to be born in a safer, more sanitary environment.
However, my “What are you thinking” question prompted me to consider why God sent his own Son to a barn the night he was born.
To me it would seem far more appropriate for Jesus to make his entrance in a palace, a nice house or even a synagogue. Yet when God sent his son to earth, that is where he was born. Why did God, who owns the world have his only Son born in such modest surroundings?
The words of theologian Frederick Buechner suggest the answer. He makes the point that God often does the unexpected, “…Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of man…” (The Hungering Dark)
I am convinced God sent His Son into the most humiliating conditions imaginable to demonstrate how He wanted Jesus to connect with everyone, no matter their station in life.
