It’s a very ironic thing because in our day whenever you see a nativity scene in
somebody’s home or in a shopping center, it always looks so neat. But in the actual barn where Jesus was born, it wasn’t that way. Because a barn’s a messy place.

I’ll guarantee you when Mary found out that’s where she was going to give birth
to her baby, she didn’t say to Joseph, “Hey, how sweet, how quaint!” Nobody went
through the barn and cleaned it up with Clorox ahead of time. It looked and smelled the way barns always look and smell. It was a pitiful place to have a child. And when the shepherds showed up in the barn, they didn’t make it any better either. They’re not known for hygiene. The baby’s in a manger and a manger is not a high-end product in the crib line? A manger is a feed trough.

Born in a barn, wrapped up in rags, surrounded by animals, entrusted to this
poverty-stricken young couple.

The king of the universe, the alpha and the omega, creator of the universe, enters
into human history in a little bundle, wrapped in obscurity and poverty and humility.

Why did God enter the world like this?