Christmas - Emmanuel - Sally Lloyd-Jones

Mary and Joseph had to take a trip to Bethlehem, the town King David was from.

But when they reached the little town, they found every room was full. Every bed had been taken.

"Go away!" the innkeepers told them. "There isn't any place for you."

They couldn't find anywhere except an old, tumbledown stable

So they stayed where the cows and the donkeys and the horses stayed.

In there, in the stable, among the chickens and the donkeys and the cows, in the quiet of the night, God gave the world His wonderful gift.

The baby that would change the world was born -- His baby Son.

Mary and Joseph wrapped him up to keep Him warm. They made a soft bed of straw and used the animals' feeding trough as his cradle. And they gazed in wonder at God's Great Gift, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Mary and Joseph named him, Jesus, "Emmanuel" -- which means "God has come to live with us."

Because, of course, He had.

     --From The Jesus Storybook Bible
                      by Sally Lloyd-Jones