A little baby was born nearly 2,000 years ago under very unimpressive circumstances. He was born to poor working people living in an oppressed country. He was born while the parents were on a journey that was required by a tyrant, and they had to stay in a stable instead of in a home. The baby was laid to sleep in a trough from which cattle usually ate. And yet, Christians down through all of those years have believed that there was something very special about that birth. We have believed that, in that event, something from God dropped into our world and the circles of significance of that event spread throughout the world like ripples spread across the surface of a pool when a pebble is dropped into it. Those circles of significance are still spreading today.

What is the significance of…