As we move into the Christmas season, I am reminded of a question I’ve had about Jesus’s birth since I was a little girl.  It always bothered me that Jesus was born among a bunch of smelly animals and laid in a feed trough.  The standard answer I received when I asked why Jesus wasn’t better provided for was that  God chose a humble place to be born, showing he could empathize with the poor and downtrodden.  Maybe that made some sense, but it just wasn’t a very satisfying answer.  I had this nagging irritation that I kept shoved down, unwilling to openly criticize God’s plan. It just wasn’t nice. …