When Lindsay was two, she had a little Bible story book. She could easily find the page about Jesus’ birth, and loved to point to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the picture.

One day I heard her say, “One, two… A savior has been born!” (I think the ‘one, two’ part was ‘for unto you’.)

And then, apparently trying to make sense of the animals in the picture, she said, “And then Mary took her baby to the zoo!”

No, actually Mary and her baby lived in that zoo! But aren’t you so glad? Mary was a common girl and she brought Jesus into the world among common people. God could have picked the daughter of a Pharisee or a king to give birth to Jesus, but I think He sent Jesus to live among the poor because they more accurately sensed their need for Him.

Do you ever feel like you’re living in a zoo? Sometimes I do. But that shows I’m just the sort of person that Jesus came for. If he spent his first night in a feed box, he doesn’t need me to clean up my life before inviting him in.