On Christmas Day a small manger scene sat on a table just inside the doorway to a neatly kept home. People hurried past it all day, barely noticing the tiny figures gathered around the infant tucked into golden straw. In the morning children raced by it on their way to the Christmas tree. At noon, arriving guests pushed past it, one accidentally knocking over a shepherd as he took off his winter coat.

Later in the afternoon the well-fed assembly of adults and children moved somewhat slowly by the manger again as they drifted from the dining room back into the living room. Almost none of them stopped to look at the manger. In fact, none of them even noticed it - well, none except two.

An older woman, walking with a cane, paused in front of the scene. Gently she put the shepherd back in the upright position. Then she looked at the child in the middle of the figures. Presently, she became aware of a small grandson by her side. As voices drifted in from the living room, the two continued to look deeply on the scene. At length a smile spread across the woman's face. The child smiled back at her as he took her hand. In the midst of a day filled with much busyness, the two of them quietly received God's gift.

God came to a humble maiden in an obscure village called Nazareth. An angel told her that she would bear a child. That child would be the hope of the world. And he is.

OR THIS ALTERNATE ENDING:

That's how Christmas enters our lives. Not in great leaps but in quiet moments that we can miss if we're not prepared. In Mark Jesus tells us "Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come...And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."