It was while Joseph and Mary were at Bethlehem that Mary “brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (vs. 7). It is no part of our object to consider the incarnation at this time; we are rather concerned with the personal history of Mary. We venture, however, to offer the reflections of another upon this stupendous event, upon this mystery of mysteries: “The Son of God is born in this world, but He finds no place there. The world is at home, or at least by its resources it finds a place, in the inn; it becomes a kind of measure of man’s place in, and reception by, the world; the Son of God finds none, save in the manger. Is it for nothing that the Holy Spirit records this circumstance? No! There is no room for God, and that which is of God, in this world. So much the more perfect, therefore, is the love that brought Him down to earth. But He began in a manger, and ended on the cross, and along the way He had nowhere to lay His head.” So it was; and surely, as believers we are constrained to bow with reverence and adoration in the presence of our God, as we contemplate the manner in which He became “God manifest in flesh,” and “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” And while thus prostrate before Him, let us remember that to effect the gracious purposes of His love, to redeem His people, whether Israel or the church, entailed upon Him rejection in life and the cross in death. That child who lay in the manger was “the object of all the counsels of God, the upholder and heir of all creation, the Saviour of all who shall inherit glory and eternal life.” It is no wonder, consequently, that Mary was hidden through all this time; not a word is recorded of what she felt, thought, or said, for in truth she was unseen behind the glory of her child.