We raised sheep for many years, so for many years, I spent countless hours in the barns and pastures making sure the 200 to 300 ewes that lambed during the months of December through February were safe, warm, and dry.

Lambing during this time inevitably meant a few of those ewes would deliver on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

If it was snowy or well below-zero temperatures were forecasted, this meant I made trips outside round the clock to check to make sure any new mommas dried their lambs off before they froze. Being the good mommas they were, once the lambs were born, they usually led them to the shelter of the large barn, knowing there would be plenty of warm straw to bed down in.

Even though we retired from farming, I can still hear the contented sighs and newborn bleats of the mommas and the babies inside the barn. I can still smell the sweetness of the hay and the lambs. When I remember those things, I sigh with contentment.

Though delivering a child in a stable is hardly ideal, I can’t help but thinking Mary must have felt those same feelings the night her son and our Savior was born. Safe, warm, and content, knowing God is in control.

Merry Christmas!