We know so little about Jesus’ birth. While it has been the subject of billions of dramatizations and endless speculations, the historian Luke gives it all of one sentence: “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” It is almost frustrating, isn’t it? If I had been writing the story of Jesus’ life, I would have written paragraphs and pages. I would have explained why Mary was traveling with Joseph to begin with, why no one in Bethlehem welcomed them into their home, why there was no better place for them to stay than a barn, who was with them when that baby was born, and so much else. I would have filled out all of those details and removed all of the speculation. God does not give us all the details we want, but he always gives us the details we need. Share But you know what? I probably would have drowned the story in detail. We see it often in the Bible: God does not give us all the details we want, but he always gives us the details we need. When it comes to the birth of Jesus, we get all the details we need to understand one thing with the utmost clarity: Jesus comes as the least. Luke opens this part of his account of Jesus’ life with the name of Caesar Augustus, the mighty emperor, the man who can … Continue reading Why We Know So Little About Jesus’ Birth