The Christmas story reminds us once again that it was not man’s idea that the Son of God should be born in a stable. And so the first thing we learn from Jesus’ birth is that the Lord will not always be found where we expect to find him. We tend to look for him in the nice, the clean, the warm. We expect him to be in churches and in hymns of praise and in Christmas cards which have scripture verses on them. . .And if these are the only places we search for the Lord, then we’re not looking in the stable. This reality is expressed with dramatic force in these lines from Michael Quoist’s book called Prayers:
“I am not made of plaster, nor of stone, nor of bronze. I am living flesh throbbing, suffering. I am among men and women and they have not recognized me. I am poorly paid, I am unemployed, I live in a slum. I am sick, I sleep under bridges, I am in prison. I am oppressed, I am patronized. I sweat men’s blood on all battlefields. I cry out in the night and die in the solitude of battle. And yet I said to them: Whatever you do to my brothers and sisters, however humble, you do to me.”

– James F. Colaianni