As we fill our plates with celebratory food and turn to the giving of gifts to one another, we can reflect upon the manner of Jesus’ birth. Praise God that he is lowly in heart. For while we give of our plenty, we also know our own wants and needs—the poverty of our hearts apart from Christ. He did not regard the high, but the lowly. And, he came the share with us in want and need so that he might be forever the King of our hearts and our treasure.

Anselm wrote:

“O loveable, O admirable condescension! God of boundless glory, Thou didst not disdain to be made a contemptible worm. Lord of all things, Thou didst appear as a slave among slaves. It seemed too little to Thee to be our Father; Thou didst deign, O Lord, to be our Brother also. Nay, more; Thou, Thou the Lord of all things, who hadst need of nothing, didst not refuse, even at the very outset of Thy human life, to taste to the full the inconveniences of most abject poverty. For, as the Scripture says, there was no room for Thee in the inn (St. Luke ii. 7) when Thou wast about to be brought forth, nor hadst Thou cradle to receive Thy frail and delicate frame; but Thou, Thou who boldest [sic] the earth in the palm of Thy Hand, wast laid, wrapt in rags, in the vile manger of a filthy cattle-shed; and Thy Mother shared with brute beasts a stall for her hospice. Be comforted, be comforted, you that are nurtured in filth and want, for your God is with you in your poverty.”