Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year 2016 | Page 38

Sunday—December 25th

Christ is Born!
Luke 2:1-7
Imagine what it would have been like if our leader made a declaration like Caesar's? Travel
would be a nightmare as millions would try to get to their hometowns to register. Plane tickets
would be sold out, highways would be packed and business owners would have to close shops
until they returned from registering.

We can imagine the impact would be similar when Mary and Joseph received the decree from
Caesar to go register in their home town. Families would have to travel on foot or by animal.
Business owners would have to close up shop until they returned, and families would have to
rush to find space to stay before all the rooms were taken by other visitors. Even if it was
inconvenient, even if it was bad timing, citizens had to go because this was Caesar Augustus,
leader of the Roman empire, commanding it. So Mary and Joseph, who were expecting a
baby really soon, would have to go too. Their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was at
least a three day journey.
Caesar's decree had a big impact on so many people, but it still seems small in compared to the
decrees made by God.
When God created the world he decreed, "It is very good." It was perfect, but when Adam and
Eve fell into sin they separated themselves from God. Their actions ruined what God had made
perfect. In an act that would save his creation God would make a decree that impacted the
entire world. He decreed that a Savior would come to free them from sin and death. Again God
decreed to his people that the Savior would be an offspring of a man named Jessie, his mother
a virgin and he would be born in a small town called Bethlehem.
Inconvenient as it was, that is why Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem. God used
Caesar's decree to fulfill his own decree. God would move around nations so our Savior would
come just as he decreed it! He would rule the world so you might have life in the Jesus, born in
Bethlehem, born for our sins.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, you direct all things for the good of your children. Graciously direct our eyes to
your Son, our Savior, as the source of our hope and salvation. Amen.
ACTIVITY:
Write down some of Jesus' decrees on small strips of paper (e.g. Lk 6.23a, Lk 12:8, Lk 12:28, Lk
13:30, Lk 15:7 Lk 11:13). If you have time before, place strips in a manger, wrap it and put it
under the tree. Open that present first having each family member reading 1 or 2 passages.
You can ask why this makes Jesus so important to us.

38