Luke 2:1-7
Rhythms
We hear the familiar sounds of the season no matter where we go. Songs of Joy, of Peace and of Hope. All designed to change our inward rhythm to be more festive in nature.
But the journey that lead up to the birth of Christ was anything but festive.
Joseph and Mary were going about their normal daily life when they received another message. This time it wasn’t in a dream nor from the visitation of an Angel. It was from a messenger sent from Caesar. The message was clear, you must pack up and travel to your home town…
“we need to count you for tax purposes.”
Even though that “sounded like fun” (wink, wink)…
there was no maternity clause in the degree
So the Rhythm changed.
All of a sudden they needed to travel a great distance with someone who was great with child. The trip its self probably started the labor pains. Her water probably broke on the way and labor pains increased the closer they got to Jerusalem.
No Epidural….
Natural Birth Only.
This of course is me imagining what it would be like to make that trip…
while one of you was with child and the other was just trying to make it better.
So it was a hard journey for them, filled with concern and anticipation of a birth…
one that at times may have seemed like it was going to happen on the side of the road…
and that would not have been safe.
But in the fullness of time, fulfilling prophecies from long ago. They made it to Bethlehem, the city of David, the place where King Jesus would be born.
And everything changed.
The rhythm went from hardship and concern to a flow of Joy and Excitement. It went from fear to the feeling you have when you hold your child for the first time… a feeling that is indescribable.
A feeling that is second only to the experience of Jesus saving your soul when you accept Him
And that’s quite the Rhythm.
