Acrylic 18" x 24"     Luke 2

Later that night Mary gave birth. After she washed and wrapped the newborn infant in the strips of cloth that she had brought, they rested. Mary gazed at the baby in her arms as she reclined next to Joseph. Joseph marveled as he looked upon his family in the glow of the lamp, with the eerie star light beaming in through the hole in the stable wall. Mary smiled and motioned towards the hay in the feeding trough behind her. It wasn't in use by the animals, so there they laid the baby. Joseph padded the sides of the manger with clean straw. He noticed the smell of the barn animals again, his eyes took in the old cloth wrapped around the baby, and he heard the wind shuddering against the side of the barn. He thought to himself that the significance of who this little person was surely could not be measured by the splendor of the occasion. Never was so great a gift so poorly wrapped!