Modern travel is often either, or both, an epic adventure or a major inconvenience. The headlines this morning note hundreds of flights were canceled yesterday by United and Delta due to COVID. Imagine sitting in an airport halfway from where you were to where you are going and having no way forward, no way back, and no place to lay your head in a busy, overpopulated airport. 

Popular entertainment shows Mary sitting astride a donkey as Joseph leads the way on their journey to Bethlehem. Our Bible texts do not offer us this detail. One scholar explained how a donkey was the equivalent of a Cadillac today. In all likelihood, Joseph could not afford such a luxury. 

Even if he could, how easy would it be for Mary to sit for a long time on a bouncing burro? Indeed, how easy would it be for a very pregnant Mary to get onto a burro? In all likelihood, Mary walked. The journey probably took longer than normal. 

At last, Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem. Since every guest accommodation was filled due to the command of the leader of the known world to return to ancestral homes for the census, Mary and Joseph had to make do with less than five-star accoutrements. 

So it was that a miracle baby was wrapped tightly in cloth and laid in a feeding trough. After the agony, tears of joy. After the delivery, the reality of their surroundings settled in. After a holy silence, a moment of rest. 

But only a moment. 

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