For many of my songs, I try and go against the grain of normal thinking about familiar Bible Stories. The idea for A Cave in Bethlehem came from the fact that many of the stables in the region where Jesus was born were caves instead of the wooden structures we see in modern nativity scenes. I also thought about the barns and stables that I have been in. They are not clean environments. Just the thought of putting a baby in a manger with hay isn’t something we would want to do today.
The first verse of the song was inspired by these ideas. I wanted to paint a picture with words of what the stable was like. I focused on the presence of the animals. I don’t think anyone having a baby even in Jesus’ time would want to have a baby born around a bunch of animals. I think about the smell of a barn. It was probably dimly lit with a torch. Hopefully the torch was above a dirt floor and not over a big pile of hay. It sounds like a dangerous place to be and not somewhere that you would want to have a baby born.
The tune is one that I had kicked around a long time before the idea for the lyrics came together. It didn’t start its life as a Christmas tune. I tried to fit several other Bible Stories with this tune before this one stuck.