The Christmas story has become really sanitized.
I mean literally. How many depictions do we see, how often do we think, of the Christ Child in the manger, surrounded by shining angels, kindly shepherds, pretty sheep… and bugs and worms, rotted bits of feed and dung, dirt and moldy straw?
The manger was likely in a rough, dark, musty cave, not in an open-air lean-to that the greeting cards portray.
We can also wonder whether Joseph and Mary were told “no room in the inn!” not only because the city was crowded… but perhaps because innkeepers declined rooms to unmarried pregnant girls.
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