Author: Betsy Nelson
Epiphany is my favorite day in the church year. It is the 12th day of Christmas – the one of the 12 drummers drumming. It celebrates the day that the Magi arrived in Bethlehem and saw Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.
The birth of Jesus was unremarkable. It happened to two weary travelers, swept up in the hubbub of a random government mess. There was a census. Everybody had to go to their birth-towns to be registered, without any consideration of ability or inconvenience. Here were these two ordinary people, doing what they had to do. There was no place to stay for them, even though the woman was very noticeably pregnant. Nobody took mercy on them. They weren’t special. They weren’t anybody to look twice at.
The child was born without any midwives or even friends around. The story could have ended here, with this tiny new family just doing their duty in a strange town, strangers themselves.
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