I think God must have said to himself: Man does not love me because he does not see me; I will show myself to him and thus give him such cause to love me. God’s love for man was very great, and had been great from all eternity, but this love had not yet become visible… Then, it really appeared. The Son of God let himself be seen as a tiny Babe in a stable, lying on a little straw.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori