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Why in the world didn’t God choose to be born somewhere just a little more comfortable and convenient for that scared young mother and her frantic husband? It wouldn’t have to be a palace. Choosing to be born in Joseph and Mary’s home in Nazareth, with friends and family around to help and then celebrate, would have been so much easier on Mary and Joseph. Why not?
God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are clearly not our thoughts (see Isaiah 55:8). Clearly, God had a point in choosing to be born into humanity in such circumstances. Why do you think it was?
Maybe one point God was making in the choice of a stable in Bethlehem for our savior’s birthplace was this: No matter how sweaty and scared, no matter how oppressed or displaced or pushed around, no matter how miserable and alone and exhausted we might be, God is there with us. God has been there with us all along. And God will always be there with us.
This message is excerpted from “The road to Bethlehem” by Audrey Novak Riley in the November/December 2021 Gather magazine. Today is Christmas Eve.