Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-3
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
Devotional: “In those days” the time when Mary was carrying the baby Jesus and the time of her delivery the “world kept on turning.” Governmental affairs, business affairs, and personal affairs continued as if nothing of eternal cosmic significance had occurred. The persons who knew about Mary's encounter with the angel of God were few in number and of no particular consequence in the world's view. So life just continued on at the time when the most significant event in human history was taking place. God was sending His Son into this world to save and reconcile the world unto God's Self.
Isn't it strange to us how God's love works ofttimes in secret; ofttimes quietly; ofttimes with no fanfare?
The government was going to count its citizens. This occasioned people going to a different location to be counted by some official. Travel plans had to be made; routines interrupted; schedules and locales altered. Certainly for Mary and Joseph this was a stressful situation. How would they travel? What would happen if she delivered on the journey or in a strange place? The ordinary probably became overwhelming. The logistics of life were in no way altered for them. They had to “keep on keeping on.”
Yet, in the very midst of the human situation of the ordinary, God did the extraordinary; the unpredictable; the illogical; and that which few knew about.
The great Mystery of God is that God's love works in the ordinary, the mundane, even the problematic, tedious and boring. As we seek to focus upon the Birth of Jesus, we do so in a season of all sorts of distractions from just the ordinary participation in the Season of Advent and Christmas. In the midst of all that is ordinary and expected this year, may we pause and become aware anew of what God has done, is doing and will do in Jesus Christ in the midst of it all.
May we be filled with joy and peace and hope and love as the world “keeps on keeping on”.
Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus.
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