All the time and the effort and the exhaustion and even the pain seems to be made OK by this moment. All the past seems to have lead up to this point. And an infinite future, filled with unlimited possibilities and dreams lies ahead. Imagine what Joseph and Mary must have felt like. All of that and more.
Any birth is a miracle.
But in this birth they had cooperated with God. The baby they brought forth that evening was not only their son, but God's son . . . God's chosen One . . . So perhaps they are not so far away from us after all. Maybe we can, amidst all the craziness of our lives, have some inkling what their experience was like.