The baby arrived into a dim and dank manger filled with the usual odours of a stable and, perhaps, lit by a solitary candle. His holy Mother stopped the infant’s shivering in the night air by wrapping him in swaddling clothes and nursed him. The Virgin Mother of the Incarnate Word looked into the face of God with an unbreakable and holy bond of love and wonderment. What a rapturous moment it must have been! All of heaven rejoiced to see God’s plan of salvation unfolding. 
The Son of God was born into poverty. It could not have been any other way. If the King of kings had been born in palace with wealth and privilege the Magi could have adored Him but the Shepherds and the lowly would have been shut out at the palace gates. It could not be. Christ came to bring Good News to everybody everywhere. Later Jesus would say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5.3. cf. 23.11-12.) It is those who know their internal poverty who are most open to God. It is the proud and haughty who are most resistant to Christ. It is the innocent, the simple and the weak who are closest to the Kingdom of God. Is that not what Jesus told us?
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. (NKJV. Matthew 18.3-5. Also see Matthew 19.14 , Mark 10.15, Luke 9.46, 18.16, cf. 1 Cor.14.20.)
Now, dear friend, listen to John Rutter's Candlelight Carol sung beautifully by Aled Jones.
Mark
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