This is not your typical “Christmas Bible Passage”. In one sense it isn’t a Christmas Bible Passage at all: there’s no mention in it of a virgin birth, there’s no no-room inn, no shepherds, no sheep, no angels, there’s not even a baby Jesus! But, while this story has nothing to do with the Christmas Story itself, it has everything to do with the meaning of that Story. It prepares the way for the meaning of Christmas; and Christmas fulfills the meaning of this passage in the most abundant way. And the Christmas message we find in this is passage is: God’s presence with us, & God’s passion for us.