Whether you believe it to be true or not, I think we all can\u00a0agree it\u2019s the greatest love story ever told. \u00a0The story is written in\u00a0the most read book in the history of the world. \u00a0The plot of any romance novel or movie pales in comparison. \u00a0It\u2019s the story of how the Savior of the world humbly began his life in a stable and willingly gave his life on a cross. \u00a0Our franch helps us teach our children the reality of His birth. \u00a0You see, your mama\u2019s manger scene doesn\u2019t tell the whole truth of that day. \u00a0His birth did indeed happen in a stable. \u00a0But, the nativity scenes sold in stores are clean, fresh, and flawless. \u00a0Well, this isn\u2019t really\u00a0the case for any place farm animals are kept. \u00a0For one, our barn is always dirty and dusty no matter how frequently the children sweep. \u00a0Our children are used to their friends holding their noses because of the\u00a0smell of fresh manure in our barn. \u00a0We think of our feeding trough that\u2019s bent and dented as it\u2019s used twice a day every day to feed our livestock. \u00a0It\u2019s licked repeatedly, pushed over, and rolled in the dirt as the animals search for every last grain pellet. \u00a0It’s likely that the\u00a0feeding trough that\u00a0cradled the hero of the world wasn’t brand new or scrubbed perfectly clean by Mary and Joseph. \u00a0Our children have played on our hay bales for hours, but I’ve never found them asleep on the hay because it’s simply not a comfortable bedding choice. \u00a0Yet,\u00a0hay is what kept Him warm in the manger. \u00a0A stable is also certainly not the most peaceful place for a newborn to sleep. \u00a0Our drafty barn is filled with noise as the wind rattles the barn doors and all the farm animals make their Old McDonald sounds. \u00a0The King of kings surely deserved a beginning opposite to circumstances such as these. \u00a0But, God\u2019s plan for His son was not a high-profile birth in an elegant palace on a hilltop. \u00a0Instead, He came to earth in the lowliest of circumstances. \u00a0Why? \u00a0It\u2019s all in His name, Immanuel, which means God with us. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t hidden behind some elegant gate guarded by an army of soldiers living a pampered, privileged life like the kings and queens of the ages. \u00a0He was born in a barn so that even the lowly and filthy shepherds wouldn\u2019t feel ashamed to go to Bethlehem to see Him. \u00a0And so, our\u00a0manger scenes could use a handful of dirt to remind us of what\u00a0God was willing to do to show His love for us all. \u00a0But, before you sprinkle some dirt on your mama’s antique nativity scene, you might want to first tell her why.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whether you believe it to be true or not, I think we all can\u00a0agree it\u2019s the greatest love story ever told. \u00a0The story is written in\u00a0the most read book in the history of the world. \u00a0The plot of any romance novel or movie pales in comparison. \u00a0It\u2019s the story of how the Savior of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":706,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}