The Nativity (1492) Domenico Ghirlandaio
Today, the celebration of the Birth of the Lord, we center our attention a Love so great that all the writings of the Fathers and Doctors or the Church, homilies, books, and works of art have not exhausted it: God manifesting to our created eyes and hearts his infinite love, his fierce taking back to himself those whom he created to share in his eternal live and fiery love! But this takes place in a way that we stand in wonder at: hidden in the hills in an obscure town, with only a good man and his pregnant wife, whom he is caring for, with nowhere to go but a rough place to be sheltered in from the wind.
I don’t think we will ever understand why God did things the way that he did. And I think we will never exhaust our gratitude that he did do things just this way – because we all know how to approach a baby, with a smile on our face, with coos that have no meaning but that hold our hearts in them and assure us that God did in fact become so small, so helpless, so in need for us come to him. He became little and humble, and he asks us to do the same.
