part 4 of “Uncomplicated Christmas”
There is nothing more complicated than planning and taking a vacation somewhere. If everything goes according to plan, a vacation can be a really good time with family or friends. But chances are, we have all taken a vacation that didn’t go according to plan. No matter how hard we planned something always gets missed, something ends up costing more than planned, or a portion of the trip takes longer. We have all been a part of a wild vacation that made us never want to take a vacation again.
Then there are the last-minute trips that we don’t really plan on taking. They just come up and we have to make plans on the fly. These kinds of trips can be really complicated. This is the kind of trip that Mary and Joseph had to take. There was no time for them to make any plans or set up anything. They just had to go. Let’s look at this story and see how they handled this complicated situation.
In Luke 2, we see a few complicated situations come up for Mary and Joseph. We see the first come up when a census is announced. So this complicated things for Joseph, as he lived in Nazareth and would need to go to Bethlehem to be counted for the census. This means that he and Mary (because of their engagement) had to travel and she was very pregnant by this time. She probably didn’t want to travel. Back then, they traveled by donkey, if they had one, or they walked. The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about 80 miles. So I am sure that she didn’t want to leave their house in Nazareth that was all set up and ready for the baby. I am sure that she wasn’t all that excited to walk or even to ride on a donkey for 80 miles being 9 months pregnant. This complicated things.
The second comes up after they have made the 80 miles journey to Bethlehem. They arrive in town and they go to hotel after hotel to find a room to stay in. So now they didn’t have a place to stay. This probably upset Mary a bit because she was about to have a baby and she had nowhere to go to have the baby. She more than likely was frustrated at the situation because she could have been at home where everything was ready. Joseph was probably frustrated too because he wanted to care for his fiancé and couldn’t find a place for them to stay.
The final complication comes when Joseph goes to an inn to see if there is room for them. There was no room for them. The only place he could find was a barn. I am sure that this was not what Mary had in mind. She was about to have a baby and a barn was not the place that she was going to have the baby in.
All of these complications came at a critical time for Mary and Joseph, as complications tend to do. They wouldn’t be called complications if they came at a good time. But just imagine for a second, all of this stuff was happening all at the same time. They had plans for the baby at home. They were ready for the baby at home. They had everything set up at home. But now they were in Bethlehem and they had nothing but a barn and manger. They had to be frustrated. They had to be angry. They were tired from the trip. This was not at all what they had planned.
These are the same kind of situations that we face as well. We have things all planned out and then a pandemic happens and changes a lot of those plans. It can be frustrating, annoying, and stressful. But while all of that is true, we just need to go forward and not let it get to us. Mary and Joseph were frustrated at the situation, but they didn’t let it get to them. They didn’t fight the census. They didn’t fight the travel. They didn’t fight having to stay in a barn because it was the only shelter. Now they could have fought all of this complicated stuff and probably just made things even more complicated. But they didn’t do that. They took the trip to Bethlehem and stayed where they could - which was where God wanted them to be.
Mary and Joseph couldn’t control their circumstances leading up to the birth of Jesus. They couldn’t control the decree of a census. They couldn’t control that they needed to now travel to Bethlehem. They couldn’t control that the only shelter left in town was a barn.
Just like them, there just situations that we can’t control. We can’t control that we are in a pandemic that has changed a lot of plans and the way we get together with family and friends. We can’t control all the other complicated things that have come up because of this pandemic. But we can control how we go through complicated circumstances. We can go through them with our eyes on Jesus and know that He does have a plan for us on the other side of whatever we are facing. There is a verse in 1 Peter:
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.” - 1 Peter 1:6 NLT
I saw this verse a few days ago and it just filled me up. Mary and Joseph, even though they were facing all of the things they were, had a wonderful moment of joy at the end - the birth of Jesus. The same is true for us. We may have to face complicated situations (trials as 1 Peter 1:6 states), but there is wonderful joy for us on the other side. God is with us. God is for us. God has good plans for us. This is our wonderful joy! We should be truly glad!
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