Day 115
Saturday, December 24, 2022

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Scripture
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.  —Luke 2:1–7

Wisdom
God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.  —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, Jana Riess, 2010

Prayer
Make sacred this ancient story: a census, a couple, a woman with child, no room at the inn, a manger and unexacting swaddling clothes. Make sacred our open hearts, ready to receive beyond all expectation. Amen. —The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster