It's been a while, and this is my first post here post-conference.
The Birth of Jesus
1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
Just the thoughts of what Joseph and Mary had to go through. Firstly, the timing of the census couldn't have been worse. In a day without motorized vehicles, a pregnant woman had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. A quick Google of that shows that the distance is about 140km! Considering that it was a global census, many caravans would have been available, but Joseph probably walked on foot, while Mary sat on a donkey. The fastest time possible would have been 4 days. The expected time would be at least a week, if they avoided Samaria.
I mean Mary would definitely have something to say about it to God. Why on earth would He have to choose the time when she was "obviously pregnant" before getting the emperor of the Roman Empire to conduct the census. This is of course assuming Mary is super spiritual and not cursing the emperor for being so unreasonable to require everyone to "balik kampung" just so that he can get statistics.
The journey itself wouldn't have been pleasant. Everyone had to uproot their life for a week or two just to travel, I'm sure the roads weren't filled with "Christian" drivers. And trust me, Christians aren't exactly Christians when they're driving. And not to mention that 50% of the Joseph crew was pregnant.
When they finally get there, I'm sure it would have been nice for God to provide a place for them to stay. But not even that was given to them. They had endured an arduous journey to say the least, the shame of travelling A WEEK on the road with EVERYONE ELSE with your PREGNANT FIANCEE. I mean God surely could be more reasonable than that. But they had to give birth to their firstborn in an animal barn. Joseph could have easily said "What happened to God my Provider?"
But in all this, they were obedient. They didn't once complain. Amazing. For me, that's only possible when you know that God is the one that told you to do all these things. It's that personal revelation from God. That dream that God birthed within you. That you would go through all that hassle. When the circumstances seem unreasonable, when God doesn't seem to provide, when people aren't exactly your friends, and you seem to even just be doing your daily life when you need to obey a conquering emperor to pack up and take a two week vacation. I mean, Mary gave birth in Nazareth, how close to giving birth was she on the journey?? How much faith would it take if you were within days of your wife giving birth, not to obey God, but just the order of an emperor? But because they knew it was God in all this, they had the peace to continue their journey. And in their obedience, "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight".
They lived for something bigger than themselves. They paid the price to bring the biggest blessing into the world. And if even God's only Son was not spared hardship in the birthing process, how much more we should expect that the devil would want to sow tares where there is good seed. But all in all, through the hardships, the prophecies will come true, hopes will turn into satisfaction. Dreams, a reality :)