Jesus’s family was homeless at Christmas. So Jesus was born in a fodder rack for cattle.
Jesus’s family was a refugee and had to seek shelter in Egypt from a genocidal infant-killing Jewish King Herod.
Before Jesus was born, His mother prophetically declared that Jesus would exalt the lowly and humble, and fill the hungry with good things (Luke 1). Jesus chose to be poor (2 Corinthians 8:9). His self-declared mission was to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4).
Jesus is near to the broken-hearted and close to the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
This Christmas, as we celebrate the coming of Jesus as the Christ amidst war, conflict, terror, poverty, inequality, hunger, sickness, affliction, I want to remember that Jesus came near to us in our suffering, to empathise with our suffering, to share our suffering. And He is still near.