From The Best Christmas Pageant Ever:

Imogene had the baby doll but she wasn’t carrying it in the way she was supposed to, cradled in her arms. She had it slung up over her shoulder, and before she put it in the manger she thumped it twice on the back.

I heard Alice gasp and she poked me. “I don’t think it’s very nice to burp the baby Jesus,” she whispered, “as if he had colic.” Then she poked me again. “Do you suppose he could have had colic?”

I said, “I don’t know why not,” and I didn’t. He could have had colic, or been fussy, or hungry like any other baby. After all, that was the whole point of Jesus—that he didn’t come down on a cloud like something out of “Amazing Comics,” but that he was born and lived…a real person. (73-74)

Yes. That is indeed the point.

His birth was painful. It was dirty. He cried. His mom probably cried. I bet His dad did, too. And while we’re on the subject of that dad, I can’t imagine the stress of traveling with a pregnant wife only to find she’s in labor only to find there’s no place to stay the night only to find yourself hanging out with the animals.

When we sanitize this scene we miss something wondrous about it.

Jesus, Immanuel, God with us… and all the inconvenient implications that come with being a true, human baby.

God became man so that we might become the sons and daughters of God.