The Family Tree

If you visit me, you'll find one corner and the adjacent wall covered with trees. For me, they have multiple meanings. For my guests, they are conversation starters. Outside my front window is a plum tree that I call mine. I spend hours watching the birds come and go. 

Trees trigger feelings of calmness and peace even during a storm. As I reflect on the day of Jesus' birth, I sense some fear as Mary's labor intensified. Mary was so young; did she understand the birthing process? Or was the fear from Joseph. 

Was there anything Mary saw to calm her?

The baby born to Mary would become "a man of sorrows... familiar with suffering." (Isaiah 53:3) Those hardships began before he was even born. 

"Why now?" thought Joseph as he slowly walked home. He dreaded telling Mary that they would have to go to Bethlehem for the census reporting; it was going to be hard on her so close to her time. All the things she had made for the baby, the cradle he had made- none of it could go with them. Just a change of clothes and some food for the journey... they had room for no more. No family nor the old, but a good midwife of Nazareth would be there to help Mary through the birth. "Why now, Lord?" 

Gracious, sweet Mary reassured him that God would take care of them. Holding her aching back she went inside to prepare for their journey. It would take a long time to cover the 90 miles to Bethlehem. 

But all was as planned- one writer said, "Taxes were as good as any reason to get the Holy Family to Bethlehem" for God had said through Micah that the Savior of the World would come out of the little town of Bethlehem and would be a relative of Kind David. (Micah 5:2)

 Indeed both Mary and Joseph were of the house of David; their family tree is listed in Scripture. By the way, that tree contained David, whom God loved, and Boaz, a righteous man, married to Ruth, a gentile. Even Jesus' lineage indicated that He came for all the world.

 Joseph and Mary may have joined a caravan of other travelers also going to the place of their ancestry. Yet it would be a rugged trip. Whether walking or riding, Jesus was bouncing safely within Mary's womb. God would protect them, but that did not include making the trip any easier. More tough times were ahead: no place to stay in Bethlehem, no easy birth, no royal garments, Joseph would have to find work, Mary would feel all alone. 

Then another trip to escape into Egypt knowing innocent male babies under 2 years old were being slaughtered by Roman soldiers. 

Christmas card nativity scenes do not show the reality of Jesus' birth: Joseph mucking out a stall and lining it with clean straw, the smells and sounds of the animals, a rural town unprepared for the large number of travelers, limited food and water, only strips of cloth to wrap the baby, the fear when smelly shepherds arrived. 

... Mary pondered these things and tucked them away in her heart ... 

Selah- Shalom, Connie