ADVENT ENCOUNTERS - JOSEPH AND MARY

A friend of mine, Tammie Gitt, writes a super blog called living 3368.  She makes a guest appearance today on THRIVING IN CHRIST with some thoughts on Joseph and Mary that I found intriguing.  Don't forget to click the commentary link. - Steve

Advent Encounters: Mary and Joseph

Did you ever wonder if Mary and Joseph welcomed the anonymity of the road to Bethlehem?
Think about what the past months have been like for them. It all began with an angelic visit. Then came explanations and tears, misunderstandings and revelations, whispers and rumors. No doubt there were still people in town who didn’t buy Mary’s story of becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit  or Joseph’s insistence on a visionary dream … and the whispers continued.

For a few days on the road, they were just another couple complying with a Roman edict.

One commentary suggested the 90-mile journey would take about three days. They’re the scholars, but common sense tells me it took longer than that. To make it in three days would have required the couple to cover a distance of 30 miles a day — with Mary waddling along when she wasn’t on the donkey — at a pace of three miles per hour.

I’m guessing that didn’t happen.

I’m guessing it was a much more difficult journey, physically and emotionally.

Any comfort they had in being just another traveling couple on an ancient Roman road ended when they arrived in Bethlehem. They found busy streets and crowded homes. And, since this whole census thing was a government operation, there were probably lines and paperwork and surly counter agents.
But something happened in the midst of the chaos.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
(Luke 2:6-7 ESV)

It was no modern hospital, but it was a decent option overall when you think about Bethlehem that day. It was a warm, private, quiet place where Mary could have her baby without the nosy neighbors complaining about her screams of pain or the baby’s cries.

It was a place where Mary, Joseph and the newborn Jesus could be alone.

In the midst of the chaos in these final days before Christmas, find your stable.

Look for a private, quiet place where you can be alone with Jesus.

Try once again to wrap your mind around the mystery of God with us.

Emmanuel.