Not So Silent Night

*Editor's Note: Our guest blogger today is a wife, home-schooling mom, photographer and cook-extraordinaire. She is a woman of deep faith and has been an encouragement in my life for many years. You can find her on the web at her blog Chocolatechic where you will find recipes, photos, and slices of humorous wisdom that will brighten your day.

My favorite Christmas carol is Silent Night.

I was laying in bed the other morning singing it to myself and I began thinking.

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright.

But you know what.

It was everything but silent, or calm.

You see the governor had made a law that every male had to go to the city of his birth to be counted for a census. He, his wife and all his children.

And you have to think.there was no birth control back then, so a family of 10 wasn't unusual.

So you have this wee little town that the population suddenly explodes to at least 10 times it's original size.

That would be like taking the population of my town, 10,000, and suddenly it is 100,000.

Food, lodging, traffic..nightmare!

All the hotels were full, but not just full.they were overflowing. People sleeping on the floors, in the hallways, in the lobby. I'm sure that almost every residential house had guests too.

Then where do you put all the donkeys, sheep, camels, chickens, goats, etc.

The barns were overflowing too.

Children running everywhere, throwing fits because they were out of their element, mothers trying to gain some semblance of order, fathers trying to figure out where to go, and how much this trip was costing them, and then the parents are bickering too.

That equals utter chaos.

This is what Mary and Joseph walked into.

And they had to stay in the barn.

A barn that was chock full of animals.

Animals are not quiet.

And what hotel/inn/B&B keeper has time to clean out the barn when his establishment is totally overrun with people?

So, it is safe to say that Christ wasn't born into a sweet little barn where every animal was in a fresh clean stall, all calm and happy.

It was filthy, smelly and noisy.

It was here that Christ met Mary and Joseph, it was here that He met the shepherds, and it is here where he meets you and I.

In the utter chaos of our lives, laundry piling up, bills piling up, children running amuck, bickering spouses, medical issues, in the calm and peaceful times...meet Him where you are.

Tanya