We Have Seen His Face: A Meditation on the Nativity

It was late when they reached Bethlehem. Many from the caravan quickly scattered to find room in the inns or to set up their own tents for shelter. Joseph was weary from the long trip, and his concern for Mary. She smiled at him through her exhaustion and distress, knowing her time was near. Joseph anxiously approached the first inn, knocked and above the din of the common room, asked for some small private place for his wife. 

“I have no room. Move on fellow!” Spoken by the innkeeper that night, the words have echoed on through the centuries by all who have no room for God in their lives.

At the next inn the owner took pity on them and offered the small cave where he kept his ox and donkey. Troubled, but grateful for the privacy, they made their way behind the inn to the stable. 

God would be born into human poverty. We can invite Him anywhere. No human misery is too great that God cannot be found there, if we only have eyes to see.

Joseph settled Mary in as best he could, turning over the hay, sweeping out the dung, kindling a small fire. Mary waited quietly, recalling the angel’s visit, remembering Elizabeth’s words “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Is it really true? If only Elizabeth were here with me now.

The pain was not unbearable. Joseph held her as the Child of her womb slipped into our world. Then, cutting the cord, he quickly picked Him up and placed Him in Mary’s arms. With her veil she tenderly wiped His tiny face and limbs and wrapped Him in the swaddling she had carried from Nazareth. 

He was so small, so weak, so human, so beautiful. He whimpered and opened his eyes. And she knew from the light that shone out from then, that she was gazing into the face of her God.

Holding Him close, like a little bird He began seeking nourishment from her breast. She would feed her God! That is how God continues to show Himself, in the weak, the vulnerable, the poor, the poverty of our own being. If we can love them, wipe away their tears, wash their feet, feed them, then we will see God.

“Whatever you do to the least you do to Me.”

Joseph put some clean straw in the manger and urged the animals close, so that their body heat and warm breath would keep the air around Mary and Jesus warm. The night air was so strange. It was still, but filled with an unearthly sound from heaven. As they rested, a commotion outside was followed by eager shepherds with lambs in arms crowding into the cave. They told of angels from heaven who directed them to seek a child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, who was the Savior, the Christ.

As they saw Mary and Jesus, their babbling stopped. Exquisite joy lit their faces as tears streamed from their eyes.

“Emmanuel! Emmanuel!” they shouted. “God is with us. He has visited His people. He has heard the cry of the poor.”

They offered a lamb and a fleece to keep the baby warm. They shared their bread and cheese with the family, played their pipes and sang a song of angels in the night. Then, seeing the weariness of Mary and Joseph, they reluctantly left as Jesus smiled a blessing on them.

Jubilantly, as if drunk with wine, they announced to all they met the Savior has been born. These shepherds had found their mission, to tell their world, the tidings of great joy.

That remains the mission of God’s Church today – to spread the Good News, to announce to a world lost in its own darkness and sin, the Gospel of great joy – "God so loved our world..." 

Each of us, is called to be a shepherd, seeking out the lost sheep in our own cirlces and urging them toward the Child in the manger, Emmanuel, God with us.