Great anticipation and hope surround the birth of a baby. If you’ve ever been present just after a newborn enters the world, you know the awe of looking into that tiny child’s face and wondering what his or her future will be. Mary and Joseph must have felt that same awe and more, for they’d been told He was the Savior.

God the Father knew the whole story, that His Son was destined for a cruel death on a cross. He knew His precious boy would be the suffering servant, the sacrificial lamb, and a man of sorrows. If you held your infant in your arms and knew these things about his life, it would crush you.

Jesus’ disciples struggled with the notion that the One who was their hope of salvation would be crucified. How could it be? It’s still hard today to look at a manger scene and know that the baby would be beaten and forced to wear a crown of thorns.

Remember the whole story. It didn’t end in Bethlehem, and not even at Calvary. That was just the beginning of our true joy in this world and hope in the next. The baby in the manger came for us!