And she brought forth her firstborn son,
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger;
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7 KJV
Mary had the baby. That is all the Bible tells us. From this distance, we tend to visualize a landscape devoid of people, a bleak stable filled with smelly animals. I wonder if that is how it was.
For one thing, Bethlehem was bursting at the seams with travelers, so much so that there was no room in the inn. Surely among that throng were women who had experienced childbirth. Surely the town had a midwife. Surely no one would ignore a young woman having her first child.
For another thing, the Bible only says “manger.” It never says “stable.” We assume stable because that’s where we would find a manger. And when we think “stable,” we think dirty, smelly and full of animals. But maybe not. It may have been as clean and well-kept as possible. People took care of their animals because they couldn’t afford to replace them.
Mary had a baby boy. In Exodus, God told Moses, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” (Exodus 13:2 NIV) Everyone there would have known this scripture. All children were considered blessings. Sons even more so. And first-born sons were a special blessing.
**********
Babies were born all the time in Bethlehem. It was what happened next that marked this child as the most important baby ever born there or anywhere.
