Hi how are you all today? I am well and in the middle of practicing for the choir in our church’s Christmas production. Does your church do something for Christmas?
It feels unusual to be talking about Christmas in mid November. There are many things that must happen before we even get to Christmas Day. There are church things, school things, work things, family things and so on. We may even have expectations around how Christmas is going to be spent this year.
Long ago, another young lady had expectations around how that day might be spent. At this time in her pregnancy, she was possibly getting her home set up for the arrival of her baby. She may have been busy making clothes and her husband may have been busy making furniture. They had a plan for the baby’s birth. Her mum was going to come over and assist. She would be in her home, surrounded by those she loved and in her own bed.
However, an announcement soon came that would upset her plans. Who knows that can sometimes happen to us? We are busy planning or even thinking about how our day might go. Then comes an announcement, a phone call, a visit or something else that changes dramatically those plans we have made.
So what do we do when that happens? Most of the time we lay aside our plans and respond to the most urgent thing that comes up. We can complain and grumble about it, but it is generally in those times that God redirects us as to what is important.
The announcement this young girl heard is found in Luke 2: 1-5 and in the Message Bible it states:
2 1-5 About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.
A census was ordered right at the time that Mary was about to give birth. This means that all of her plans and expectations that she had for how the birth of her baby was meant to go, just got changed.
Instead, she had to pack clothes, food, bedding and whatever else was needed for this journey. She also had to pack in preparation for the baby. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us what she thought or how she reacted. But in reality, there was nothing that she could do.
They had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. This would have been over dusty roads and maybe over mountains. It was not like they could get in the car and drive. No everything, including them had to be carried on a donkey.
A Google search tells me the journey would have taken them one to two weeks to complete. They would have had to stop at night and Joseph would have needed to find a safe place that was dry. This wasn’t what Mary signed up for when God told her she was going to have a baby.
But this change was God ordained. Jesus was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. The change in expectations was from God.
How often does this happen in our lives? Something happens and we get mad at God when the change was from Him for a greater purpose. Instead of grumbling and complaining when this happens, maybe we should be looking for the God factor in it. If we did this, it would result in us seeing God in situations where we might have missed Him.
So this week, if something happens like this, look to God and see what He is doing in the situation. You might be surprised.
Bless you heaps and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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