Let’s get historical! 📚 Nazareth was too small for an Inn, so it’s very unlikely there was “no room at the inn” for pregnant Mary. The word sometimes (mis)translated as “inn” was most likely an extra room in an ancient Palestinian home. The town was full of visitors so the houses were filled to the brim! The area available, the “stable,” wasn’t a separate lonely barn, but an attached cave or lower area inside the house where animals came in for the night.

Since Joseph had family roots in the town it would be against the custom of hospitality for him and his pregnant wife to be alone in a dilapidated shed barn (how we imagine it) while she gave birth! And when it came time for her to deliver (probably not the day they arrived), she would have been surrounded by women helping her.

The Christmas story we crafted around the details of the actual event doesn’t exactly match the text or the history or the archeology, BUT the core remains: God incarnate (in the flesh) came to dwell with us as this precious baby, and He was and is Emmanuel, “God with us”!

*** A Prayer: Lord, thank you for coming to be with us as one of us. Help us to see beyond our own myths and to see You as You truly are, and not who we want You to be. Open our eyes and hearts to see that You are Emmanuel, God with us. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Check out Dr. Berry Daily Live on Facebook and YouTube each day @ 9:30am PST / 12:30pm EST / 6:30pm WAT. Follow her on Instagram @drberrydaily | Crown of Life Discipleship Ministry