Today is Christmas Eve morning. But Mary and Joseph didn't know it.
To Mary, great with child, and to Joseph, this was hopefully their last morning on this crazy, long, arduous journey. They had traveled a long slow 90 miles from their home in Nazareth, now approaching Bethlehem, their destination for a census dictated by a remote Syrian governor for tax purposes. Why now? It seemed like random timing, particularly at this stage of Mary's pregnancy, a trip that nowadays would take less than two hours by car, but in their day, at least a week, traveling through rough hilly terrain, vulnerable to robbers, and Mary riding on a donkey.
They were living at the intersection of unexpected and overwhelming in so many dimensions.
They arrived in crowded Bethlehem with no place to stay. Not what they anticipated. Had God abandoned them on the side of the road? Was this journey really necessary? How little did they realize the light show scheduled later that night.
They had no clue it was Christmas Eve, a day that would be celebrated around the world for the next two thousand years. All they knew was they were weary and hungry with no place to stay in crowded Bethlehem but a dark dank stable.
What was God thinking? If they knew, if we knew, God would astonish us greatly. Trust Me in this, God whispered to Joseph and Mary. And God whispers to us in the really difficult stuff of our lives, when we don't know the end game, nor how we will get there.
We speak of things "just happening," when indeed, a great deal of thought and planning precede it, timing, location, everything in its place, ready to roll.
All part of God's magnificent design.
They had no idea what was about not to happen, but what was to come about, what was to unfold, had been repeatedly prophesied for hundreds of years and woven like a scarlet thread throughout Scripture.
For unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given. Isaiah 9. 6 The Savior of the world.
We too have no comprehension for what emerges when Jesus comes into our lives. Nothing can ever be the same.
We may be deep in hardship, wandering on an endless arduous slog through what appears a wilderness, dismayed by a darkness to be felt, questioning the bad timing, enduring too many detours, and sometimes not even knowing where we are headed, but God is continually drawing us closer to Him.
We may have no idea what God is bringing about, but we can trust Him. He is faithful. Past, present, and future tense.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians 3. 20-21
No comments:
Post a Comment