Prelude to Chapter 4

Mary's screams echoed throughout the cave-like stable.

Sweat beat down her brow as her whole body tensed in pain.

Joseph was beside Mary, unwavering in his devotion to her.

For a few hours, Mary pushed.

For the joy set before her, Mary endured the agony. She willingly laid down

her own comfort so that this child may experience life. Mary did not know it at the time, but the

son she was about to birth would one day endure his own pain for the sake of others. Her cries continued as the sun finally set over the western hills.

Then, as the stars began to sprinkle across the sky like fireflies,

Mary's whales were replaced with the whimpering of a newborn baby.

In a dusty stable surrounded by a host of farm animals,

the promised child of God was born.

Mary and Joseph cried as the newborn babe breathed in his first breaths on earth.

There were no priests to sound trumpets or incense burned at his feet.

Just two doting parents, a few donkeys and sheep, and silence.

It was a truly humble birth for such a long-awaited king.

Yet this was the prophecy of Isaiah long before, that a virgin would conceive

and give birth to a son in the city of Bethlehem and call him Immanuel, which means God

with us. This was that moment. The moment God had promised since the fall of mankind,

God himself, creator, and the word of life, came down to dwell among mankind.

He did not do so with a procession of gold or a vast army.

He did so by coming in the likeness of man. In the most humble of ways,

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