Quick! What comes to mind when you think of that first Christmas in Bethlehem?
Probably we picture Mary and Joseph beaming their love at the newborn Baby while a bright star overhead shines its light directly on the stable.
We often see illustrations that include a semi-circle of sheep, cows and donkeys that may seem transfixed as they gaze at those human intruders into their world.
How lovely, we think.
Reality would not have been so neat and tidy.
I’ve been around cows and sheep. That shelter would have kept out the cold night air, true, and the animals would have given off heat, but animals give off something else, too. Let’s just say that stable would not have smelled of incense or fragrant spices.
Mary and Joseph never would have chosen such a place.
Yet that lowly stable was God’s appointed place for them that night.
Sometimes life is like that for us, too, isn’t it?
Even when we trust in God. Even when we’re doing what we believe is right. Living our faith. Believing. Trusting. We end up in a place we didn’t choose and we think, that’s not right. Then days or months or even years later, we see the pattern hidden from us in that time.
Think how often we pray and then make what seems a good move. Maybe we go to the right.
God, however, has another direction in mind. Somehow before long we find ourselves going left.
How can this be? Are we not in charge of our lives?
Answer: Not as much as we think and this turns out to be a very good thing
My husband and I got a big lesson in how this works some time ago. For many years we operated a successful modern dairy-grain farm in central Illinois. Life was good.
Then a series of events and people contacts came together in a remarkable way and we left it all behind. Oh sure, we prayed for guidance with all our hearts, more than ever before in our marriage. We came to know, absolutely know, that God was leading us.
For a few months that seemed wonderfully true and we brimmed over with praise and joy.
Then one thing after another fizzled out. There we were in our new life, in that new place where hardly anyone knew us–or cared about us–asking each other and God, “Why?”
We had followed what felt like clear guidance, so it made no sense. At the time.
Later we could see God’s leading in all the twists and turns. Had our original plans worked out we never would have arrived in the good place God planned for us.
Through it all we learned to trust Him in a deeper way than we ever had before. We came to understand that HE knows the way, even when life seems to make no sense to us.
How much more true that was for Mary and Joseph!
Joseph and Mary believed God in what seemed an impossible situation. They believed He went before them, no matter what.
Yet there they were, on that journey to Bethlehem because the Emperor decreed every citizen must go to their town of origin. No exceptions.
Joseph walked, leading the donkey while Mary, in her ninth month of pregnancy, most likely sat on its back.
Even before they reached Bethlehem she felt the first pangs of labor. Despite Joseph’s frantic search, there was no room for them but in that stable.
And God lit up that humble place with His light and His love.
He can light up our lowly places, too
Every one of us occasionally spends time in situations we would not have chosen. All we can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and pray God will bring good out of our pain and confusion. Pray He will bring healing of body, mind and spirit.
Christmas reminds us nothing is impossible with God.
Because Jesus was born that night you and I can have hope in the midst of our dark times, the times we can’t see the way ahead but still must keep on walking.
God comes to us at just the right time, just as He did in Bethlehem that starry night long ago.
Here’s the Good News for you and for me and for all the world:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. -John 3:16-17
That verse sums up why we say Jesus is the Light, the One who shines His love and peace into our dark world.
My friend, may HE bring you light and life and peace and JOY, at Christmas and all through the year ahead! It can be yours, just for the asking. Merry CHRISTmas to you and yours!
Warmly,
Lenore