The Servant

There was another witness in the barn that night. Not only was creation watching as the Lord came down, but so was the lowliest of men - the servant. 

The Bible doesn't tell us about any servants in the stable, but it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to find them. We're talking about an inn in a time when hospitality was a major cultural value. We're talking about a man with enough room to house others, who made his generosity and hospitality a hallmark of his existence. We're talking about a place where high numbers of visitors were prone to come through every year, and a high number of visitors in a time without motorized transportation means a significant number of animals were coming through. 

Remember all of the laws that the Jewish culture had, through the Bible, about protecting someone else's assets and property. About how to take care of your neighbor's ox. About the duty you owe to your neighbor when his animal is loose. The innkeeper knew he would have to provide for the animals that came into his care as much as he provided for the human beings. 

So there had to be at least one servant in the barn that night. Possibly more. 

There had to be someone whose job it was to make sure there was enough hay in the trough, enough grass, enough water. There had to be someone who kept refilling the buckets as they became empty. There had to be someone shoveling away the waste, piling it up in the corner. There had to be someone standing guard, stationing himself at the entrance to the stable so that no predators - wild or human - could come in and so that no animals, entrusted to his care, could wander out. 

There had to be someone...preparing the manger. 

Think about that for a second. 

Mary is crying out in labor pains; Joseph is holding her hand; the animals can't figure out what in the world is going on, so they are making their own noises. Everything is in a ruckus. Everything is all confused. Something is happening, but there's no time to think about anything except what is actively happening right now. 

And quietly, in the corner, a servant is preparing a manger, knowing that when the labor pains are over, the baby will need somewhere to lay. A servant is taking care to make a bed of straw for the Lord of All Creation to rest on. A servant knows that in all the commotion, there are things that Mary and Joseph aren't really thinking about right now. 

But the servant is thinking about them. 

The servant is always thinking about them.