Christmas

Christmas

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

Luke 2:1-5

Palestine was under the rule of the Roman Empire, and Caesar Augustus—the first Roman emperor—decreed that everyone must return to his ancestral home to pay taxes. For Joseph, this meant taking an eighty-mile trip to Bethlehem. Mary, his fiancée, who was ready to have her baby any day, went with him. Now, I thought that pushing a shopping cart and turning over in bed were difficult at the end of my pregnancies. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to travel eighty miles on a donkey—to pay taxes. But this inconvenient trip, as uncomfortable as it was, was yet another part of God’s divine plan for the ages. You see, back in the Old Testament, the prophet Micah had prophesied that Jesus would come from Bethlehem, meaning “house of bread.” How appropriate—that the Bread of Life would be born in Bethlehem!

Although Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem because they thought that the Roman Empire was in control, it was really God who was in control. God always has his people in place to accomplish his purposes of bringing good news.

There’s a tremendous lesson here for us about events in our lives that seem to be huge inconveniences, or even awful tragedies. Placing our faith in God does not mean that we try to pretend that bad things are really good. But as we grow to trust God, we begin to see that he takes those difficult things that don’t make any sense to us and weaves them into purposes we don’t yet see.

Father,

Once again we are prompted to praise you for your good plan. May we trust your good purposes for us. Amen.