A Christmas Child

somewhere in a land far from her parents home a child is born to a mother accompanied by a man, who is not her father but a close family relative who is taking the child and her mom to a far away land in hope that the child may live in a land where the family might worship God in peace. Her family are strangers in this land and are not well received. The are mistrusted and despised. They are seen as desperate and different and a blight upon the land, a curse to be rejected. The child is born in a tent in a field on a cold rainy day and the only visitors are fellow journeyers who wash the child and give her to her mother's bosom. They share with her and her family what little food they have and offer swaddling clothes to wrap the child in. Her mother looks into the child's face and fears for her child and her future while at the same time feeling the love and admiration of a mother for a child. She sees in her child a gift from a God who seemingly has abandoned her and her people while at the same time accompanying them in their struggles and in their hearts and encouraging them to pray and to love. Her mother sees in this child a hope for the future, a gift for all people and she is gratified that her child has arrived this day safe and healthy. She and her relatives and friends give thanks for the birth of the child and rejoice with all the angels for the gift of this life and pray that they might find a way to be welcomed and given an opportunity to love and to pray again as they had in the days of old in the land from where they have journeyed.