Joseph was silent, but Mary pondered it in her heart. Something of incredible significance had happened in the stable on this dark and stormy night. But it was no riddle to be figured out. What happened was a mystery. Childbirth is a mystery, of course.
Biologists can describe the process, and physicians can to some extent control it.
Even so, much about it remains a mystery to be respected, not simply a riddle to be solved. But childbirth is not the mystery that brings us together this night. That a baby who would some day be famous was born in a stable on the back street of an obscure village in the Middle East is a mystery also. But the lore of human culture is filled with stories of great people who were born in humble surroundings. Lowly birth is not the mystery that brings us together this night.