Is your family working out the logistics for Christmas? Where is it, when it is, what should I bring?
But logistics are not a problem for God. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, and several years before Judah went into Babylonian captivity God gave Micah a prophecy:
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Micah 5:2
God’s people understood this meant the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem.
But the virgin girl God chose to be the mother of His son-and the man to whom she was betrothed lived in Nazareth of Galilee. Surely Mary and Joseph knew the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Did they wonder how Mary could give birth in Bethlehem, since they lived 70 miles away? Did they rest secure in the knowledge that God would work out the details? Did they wonder what they would have to tell their family, friends, and neighbors in order to go to Bethlehem when she was pregnant?
Then the news trickled down from the one man who thought he ruled the world: Caesar Augustus. Augustus decreed for a census to be taken. Each man was to register in the city of his ancestors. Joseph was from the family of King David, from Bethlehem.
Did Mary and Joseph praise God with relief when they realized this is how they would get to Bethlehem. Joseph and a very pregnant Mary prepared to leave Nazareth for a trip to Bethlehem to register for the census. Perhaps they thought they would be back in their hometown in a couple of weeks with Jesus. They probably didn’t know then that they would not see Nazareth again for years.
The couple began the arduous journey south. If they were like most people of the day, Joseph and Mary would not have traveled the shortest route. Instead, they would not have gone through Samaria-they would have gone around Samaria. The distance they traveled would have been at least 90 miles. On foot probably with a donkey carrying supplies. Imagine this difficult trip for Mary who was heavy with child.
Scripture doesn’t tell us about the details of how Mary gave birth, just that the time had come. But here was a young virgin girl, a teen, in labor, without her mother, or sisters, or aunts, or friends. The only one to help her was her betrothed husband, with whom she had not been intimate. To all the world, they looked like a couple who had jumped the gun and slept together before they should have. But they knew the truth, even if no one else did. Together Joseph and Mary, a righteous couple chosen by God, delivered the Savior of the World. Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah was born in a stable.
The day would come when Jesus would give his life for the sins of all people. But on this holy night, instinct as a mother took over as Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes. She fed him and lay him down in a feeding trough.
Surely she kissed the face of God.
Carla Killough McClafferty