A barn for the royal babe
Where did the Texas cowboys sleep on the cattle drives to the Badlands?
Where did ranchers sleep when riding herd before across the west?
Where did ranchers take shelter on their ranch a long way from their house?
On a back road between Highway 85 and the Little Missouri River, south of Grassy Butte.
A barn was good enough for Jesus. Would you want your children to be born here?
No barn for us
We love to explore the access points to the Little Missouri River as it meanders through the Badlands. We drove back on gravel roads after one of those adventures when we came to a sudden bend in the road, an unused barnyard and a ford across a creek. “What if we get stuck?” she asked.
“Well, we can sleep in the barn,” I answered. I was only joking I knew we could cross the creek and the barn would not be our bed for the night.
When we explore the back roads of Montana, Wyoming, or North Dakota, we are mindful of the need to get back to civilization before dark so we can get to the hotel. Or we are mindful of the need to get back to our tent when we camp in the mountains or the Badlands. I know Mary and Joseph were mindful of the need to find a clean place to bed down that night. That’s the way parents are.
We know that because they discovered there was no room in the inn. So, the innkeeper let them bed down with the livestock. If you’ve spent any time in a livestock barn, you know it was noisy the night Jesus was born. The cattle were “lowing” the song says when Jesus was “away in a manger.”
Wow. No wonder Christianity is a paradox and a mystery. No wonder scoffers scoff at the gospel. It’s above our human thinking. God with us. Immanuel.
Merry Christmas. We join you in celebrating the Child!
