It arrived on quiet feet, into a borrowed shelter of wood and breath and animal warmth. There, beneath a sky that held its stars like its breath, Mary wrapped her child against the cold while Joseph stood watch with the untrained courage of a man who knows his life has shifted off its axis forever. The child was given no crown, no fanfare. Only a manger and the weight of a destiny too large for language. They named him Baby Jesus, though in that moment he was only a sleeping newborn, fists opening and closing as though testing the idea … Continue reading Once in Royal David’s City