Facing a Hard Journey?
Our text today is Luke 2:1,3
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to his town to register.”
Simple words, but these words turned the world upside down. The decree required Joseph to take his young, pregnant wife, Mary on an eighty-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The trip was a hard week’s journey over rough and dangerous terrain. They would not return for more than two years and when they did, their world and our world would be changed. These words begin the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Reading the story of this journey teaches me that even hard journeys can have great lessons. Here are three:
First. God works behind the scenes.
Since the Son of God was to be born on earth, don’t you think He would come in some grand scene on the most famous stage on earth? Perhaps he would be born in a palace to parents who were royalty. I might have worked it that way, but God often works in small places and in little ways. He had His son born in a tiny village called Bethlehem to a carpenter and his teenage wife.
Second: Don’t judge too soon.
Can you imagine the consternation of Joseph when he heard that he had to make the difficult journey with a pregnant wife? Mary could not have been excited either. Though now we know that the trip was necessary, they certainly thought it was a bad idea. Don’t judge the trip too soon. God knew what was best. He still does.
Third: God’s will, will be done.
Joseph and Mary didn’t complain. They obeyed and did the will of God. When faced with hard circumstances, one only needs to make sure what God’s will is and then do it. God never asks you to do a thing without giving you the means to do it. That was true for Joseph and Mary and it is true today.
Are you facing a hard journey? Remember the journey of the carpenter Joseph and teenage Mary. As He was with them, He will be with you.
Lonnie Davis