Tag: census

Christmas is two weeks away. The Christmas season is about a week shorter this year because of a late Thanksgiving. Unlike the Thursday for Thanksgiving, Christmas is always celebrated on December 25, regardless of the day. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Maybe we should move Christmas back a week this year.” I’ve never heard anyone say, “We should celebrate Christmas on a Saturday or in the spring this year.”

The Christmas season has become a retail calendar with Black Friday sales that last a month. Christmas is about warm clothes, warm fires, snowflakes, candy canes, Christmas lights, and an ever-increasing number of inflatables. None of that sounds like something we should celebrate in the spring. Texans can’t even imagine snowflakes in the spring and with our winds the inflatables would be at least five houses down the road. I think the December 25 date is unchangeable in our culture, at least for now.

What were Mary and Joseph doing two weeks before Bethlehem?

Much of our time is measured by our clocks and calendars. Mary and Joseph had a deadline, too, that first Christmas. The Roman government had set a time for the census, and it didn’t matter that Mary was expecting her baby any day. The trip to Bethlehem was about 90 miles, and Mary and Joseph had to plan for all the possibilities. 

Nothing is ever said in Scripture about Mary’s family. I know times were different in the first century, but some things are common to every generation. If Mary’s mom were still alive, she would have been concerned about her young daughter making that trip. She would have wanted to make sure she had packed everything she might need for the trip, the baby’s birth, and the extra time and supplies it would take her to travel those ninety miles. 

If all the planning was Joseph’s responsibility, I imagine he was getting a ton of advice from the women of Nazareth about carefully planning for all possibilities. The two weeks before Christmas were tough for Mary and Joseph. It kind of puts all of our Christmas preparations in perspective, doesn’t it?

Is it time to make some adjustments to your Christmas plans?

Do the weather reports indicate that Christmas travel might mean spending the holiday in an airport or hotel this year? Is there someone you can’t or shouldn’t leave behind? Has your life become a little too busy and stressed because it is only fourteen days until Christmas?

Are the kids too focused on gifts and not focused enough on school? Are we too focused on the calendar instead of Christ? It happens every year until we decide to change the way we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

When Satan can’t have your soul, he settles for your time. When he can’t make you bad, he tries to make you busy. When your eternity belongs to God, Satan will settle for influencing your time on earth.

I wrote about Mary and Martha last week. Have you become worried and anxious about many things? If so, choose to delete a few things so you can sit quietly at the manger and spend time with the best part of Christmas.

Two weeks became two years or more

Joseph and Mary would have packed plenty of supplies and carried all their money. They would have done their best to stay with others in a group, but there’s a good chance Mary’s pregnancy slowed them down. It isn’t surprising that they arrived in Bethlehem and found there was “no room in the inn.”

Joseph and Mary’s plans were made with care but not with certainty. That young and newly married couple had no way of knowing that they would not return to their home in Nazareth for more than two years. They would not have packed or planned for the months they remained in Bethlehem or their future escape to Egypt.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a well-known, often-quoted verse. God told the prophet, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Joseph and Mary were faithful, righteous children of God. They would have been aware of the uncertainties but also known to trust God’s promises.

The rest of God’s message for Mary and Joseph

Mary and Joseph had both experienced the miraculous, and their faith and trust in God would have been strengthened as a result. Two weeks before Bethlehem, their knowledge of God’s promise to Jeremiah would have comforted their thoughts.

God had promised Jeremiah that his plans were for his children’s good, not their harm. The rest of God’s message to Jeremiah was just as important as the words found in verse 11. God also said, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:13–14).

I wonder if Joseph and Mary talked about those words as they fled in the night toward Egypt, praying for their safety and the safety of their infant son. I wonder if Mary and Joseph were able to get word to their families and friends back in Nazareth. 

Times were so different in the first century, yet the things that matter most apply to every generation.

It’s two weeks until “Bethlehem”

What plans have you made that need to be adjusted to choose God’s plan for your Christmas? His plan is to prosper you, not to harm you. His plan is best for your hope and your future. He has promised to hear you when you pray. He has promised to come to you and provide what you need. He has promised to anticipate the needs you don’t even know to pray for today.

Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those gifts from the magi were essentially the provision they needed to travel and live in a foreign country until it was safe to come home.

God knows what you need today for the Christmas you will celebrate in two weeks. Are you having the “Mary Christmas” we talked about last week, or is the Martha within trying to take over?

I hope you will plan to sit at the feet of Jesus and trust the God who always provides for his kids. His plan for your Christmas is best. Do you need to be still and invite him to come and provide it? 

Call on him in prayer, then trust that the baby in the manger has listened.