Mary probably didn't ride on a donkey. She and Joseph probably weren't turned away from an inn.

There weren't three kings, but an untold number of magi who arrived some time after Jesus' birth. And, there's no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25.

But it's still a wonderful thing to contemplate God taking on human flesh on the first Christmas.

Thanks to my son, Philip, for putting me onto this video.

By the way, my seminary professor and mentor, Bruce Schein, was of the opinion that Mary and Joseph walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem. That actually makes sense to me. People in first century Judea were accustomed to walking long distances and a very pregnant woman riding on a donkey or being a passenger in a wagon for some seventy miles seems an unlikely prospect.