God’s visit to earth took place in an animal shelter with no attendants and nowhere to lay the new-born King but a feed-trough. A mule could have stepped on him! The sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw that spectacle? Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, “nobodies” who failed to leave their names. The Christmas story inspired an Episcopalian priest visiting Bethlehem in 1865 to pen the familiar words: ‘How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given; so God imparts to human hearts the blessing of his Heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin; where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.’

Source: The UCB Word For Today, 27/12/2016