Who Will Welcome God?
"Mary gave birth to her firstborn son...and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn." -Luke 2:7 We sometimes forget, looking at our porcelain or hand carved Nativity sets, just how brutally hard the circumstances were of Christ's birth; and how difficult for a young woman, pregnant, and unwelcome anywhere . Most of us have never experienced the brutal hardship of the destitute, the refugee, or the really poor. But Jesus did, and so did his mother and his foster father, Joseph. Ever wondered why the 'greatest story ever told' begins like this : with a pregnant girl, a foster father, and no welcome anywhere? Christ's beginnings in this world were full of hardship--from his inauspicious birth in a cave to his death, like a criminal, on a cross. So, too, are the lives of many around the world, and, increasingly, in our own nation. Who will help the 30 million people at risk of losing their homes because of COVID19? Who will we