One cannot be understood without the other. There is nothing new or wonderful about that message. We hear of such things all the time. That is also the story that is being played out among us, over and over, this holiday season. A couple is struggling to find a place in the world.
People feel displaced, marginalized by the circumstances of their life.
And we, the incarnate body of Christ, struggle with them. Luther says that, if the people in the inn knew that Mary was carrying the Savior of the world, they would surely have made room for him. As it is, though, we know Christ only in one another. And so, in those who are struggling among us, we have come face to face with the challenge of Christmas to meet Jesus in the stable, to adore Him, to lay our gifts at His feet, as we respond to these needs. Tomorrow the needs will be different.