Being a mother, I often ponder Mama Marys trip to Bethlehem, about to give birth to our Lord. How uncomfortable she must have been. At nine months in a pregnancy, everything in the womans body is so out of place. Comfort is next to imposable to find. The thought of her just sitting on the back of a donkey makes me shutter, not to mention making the long trip. Getting there and no one would take them in only adds to her discomfort. In a flash, it didn’t matter. He was born. We should always think of not only the distance travled, but the conditions in which our Lord was born. He came from far away, painfull as it was for Mama Mary, to be in our midst. To be among us for all time. He comes to us daily and how many times do we not make room for Him because we have become “comfortable” in our conditions?

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The baby of board sign I see today in most cars on the road, makes me ponder our Lord not only in the womb of our Holy Mother, but her Holy Baby, our Lord, crusified on the cross, for our sins. In both instances, there was minimal comfort, but only provided by God in the joy to what was about to come.