The Long Hard Road

Okay, so we're two days out from celebrating the birth of Jesus. Winding the clock back, do you think they'd have arrived by now and settled into their accommodation? Or were they still on the road? Either way, it wasn't a pretty picture.

I've done a lot of travelling over the years and as glamorous as it all sounds, I can tell you travelling is hard work; squashed into a middle seat in the economy section for 14 hours; time zone changes; finding your way to where you're going when you arrive.

But all that is nothing compared to what Mary and Joseph went through in obedience to the Roman decree to participate in the census. 

Luke 2:4-5 So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. It was known as the town of David. Joseph went there because he was from the family of David. Joseph registered with Mary because she was engaged to marry him. (She was now pregnant.)

She wasn't just pregnant. She was days away from delivering. Imagine… uphill all the way, only to have to squat in a smelly stable when you got there! That journey to Bethlehem was exhausting and inconvenient.

But that's how God chose for it all to happen. And the message in all that for you, for me, I think is this: God's purposes so often unfold along difficult journeys. Just because the road's hard, doesn't mean it's not part of His plan. Hang in there. It's almost Christmas.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.