I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Trusting God’s Story
Imagine Mary and Joseph getting ready to become parents. They probably asked a lot of the same questions expectant parents do today: Is the baby healthy? Are we prepared to care for this child? Do we have what we need? Where will we have the baby? Are we ready for the birth?
Near the end of Mary’s pregnancy, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that everyone within the Roman world return to their hometown for a census (Luke 2:1-4). This meant that Mary and Joseph had to leave their home in Nazareth to take the four-day journey to Bethlehem, the city of David, who was Joseph’s ancestor.
It could've been because of the census that Bethlehem’s inns were full of people making the journey home. It also could've been because of a misunderstood "scandal" surrounding Mary and Joseph. Regardless, when the time came, Mary gave birth to Jesus in the only place available to them: a stable. She placed him in a manger—a feeding trough—because that’s all there was. Surely this was not the birth that Mary would have planned for her firstborn child.
And yet, it was exactly what God had ordained. God showed us a lot about His Kingdom through the circumstances around the birth of His Son.
He showed us that Jesus is humble. Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger. The King of all Creation, yet such a humble beginning.
He showed us that the Kingdom of God is accessible. This King wasn’t tucked away in a castle or a mansion, separated from His people and surrounded by luxuries—shepherds and wise men alike were able to come visit Him.
He showed us that we can trust the story. Mary had to trust God’s story. Joseph had to trust God’s story. Imagine how the story would have been different if Mary and Joseph had demanded that room be made for them in an inn, shouting, “This is the Messiah, people! We need a room with amenities!” But they didn’t do that. They accepted the situation in front of them, trusting God’s story regardless of how strange or undesirable the setting seemed.
And from that surrendered posture and strange set of circumstances, God brought forth His Son, exactly as He had planned.
We can trust the story because God is the Author. Jesus’ humble birth was not an accident—it was a message, a picture to all of us of what God’s Kingdom is truly like. It’s also an invitation for us to surrender our plans, our ideas of how the story should be, and trust the trustworthy hand of God in our lives. We can trust God.
“And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they ...
