There’s nothing harder than letting go of someone you hold dear, whether it be an aged grandparent on their deathbed or the hand of a five year old on their first day of kindergarten.

Mary must have been exhausted after that 80 mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. On a donkey. While nine months pregnant. Oy-vey.

She gave birth without a midwife and had to wrap the newborn in strips of cloth herself. No one was there to whisk the baby off to a warm basin of bath water and return the sweet smelling infant to her arms in a sterile blanket.

Mary had to lay that child down in an animal’s feeding trough. She placed baby Jesus in a hay-filled manger. She offered the child to a dirty, stinky, contaminated world. She laid Him down — something she would have to do again 33 years later.

It would have been nice if the star that directed the Wise Men to the Christ Child could have continued shining on Him throughout His lifetime. A light from heaven spotlighting the Son of God might have made believers out of some people. It would have been hard to deny the deity of a man enveloped in starlight.

It also might have been a huge distraction.

When Mary and Joseph took their baby boy to the temple eight days after the birth, the old priest Simeon took the newborn into his arms and praised God, saying – “My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32)

Jesus didn’t need a radiant beam from heaven following Him around.

He was the light from heaven.

The Old Testament prophets knew it — “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…” (Isaiah 9:2)

Jesus knew it — “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

Now we carry the light of Christ into the darkness.  We are the stars.

“You are the light of the world…let your light shine.” Matthew 5:14-16