Wednesday, Day 18: God Loves Family

For Kids:

Remember the story we read yesterday. 

We are going to look at it again, and notice something different.

God’s word says this about what happened when Jesus was born:

Luke 2:1-7
¹  At that time, Augustus Caesar sent an order that all people in the countries under Roman rule must list their names in a register.
²  This was the first registration; it was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
³  And all went to their own towns to be registered.
⁴  So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea, known as the town of David. Joseph went there because he was from the family of David.
⁵  Joseph registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was now pregnant.
⁶  While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have the baby,
⁷  and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him in a box where animals are fed.

Joseph and Mary traveled a long way – from Nazareth to Bethlehem – which is about 70 miles.

Now, 70 miles in a car is still a long trip.  You can ask your Mom or Dad when the last time you went 70 miles was.

But Mary and Joseph didn’t have a car, they had a donkey!  It probably took them over a week to make that journey.

Why did they have to go on that journey when Mary was so close to having the baby?

Well, the leader of their country ordered all of the people to return to the place of their family and be registered – which meant they had to let the government know who they were and where they were living. 

This meant Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem where his family was from.

Now, this was God at work, and not just the leaders coming up with an idea.

God had told a prophet hundreds of years ago that when His Son would come, he would be born in Bethlehem.

This prophet wrote down what God told him and he said: 

Micah 5:2
²  But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.

Bethlehem was a famous place because in the past, one of Joseph’s great, great, great, (we could go on with lots of greats) Grandfathers (Papa’s), was a great King.  His name was David, and Joseph was from his family.

God loves family.

He loves your family…your Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters, Aunts and Uncles, Papas and Nanas.  He loves that you are a part of a family and wants you to enjoy growing up in one.

There is a famous song that is often sung at Christmas time called “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.  It's a song about the village that Joseph grew up in and the village he returned back to with Mary...where Jesus was born.

Here’s a video with the words on it and you can listen to it sung in different ways, including children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpHY3jU27dc

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above your deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God, the King,
And peace to men on earth.
For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous Gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sins and enter in,
Be born to us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

For Parents and Other Not Kids:

Luke 2:4 (NIV)
⁴  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

Bethlehem is famous in Israel’s history.  The name Bethlehem means "house of bread".

Bethlehem is listed in the scriptures in four main events:

1) Rachel, the wife of Jacob, is buried at the city's gate in Bethlehem. (Genesis 35:16-20)

2) Ruth, a Gentile, met her husband-to-be, Boaz, in Bethlehem and they were married.  They would be the Great-Great Grandparents of King David. (Ruth 4:13-22)

As important, Ruth joined the human line of ancestry that was to lead to Jesus.

3) The third event took place on a hillside outside of Bethlehem with a Shepherd, a young boy who was the 7^th son in a family – David.  This is the same one who would one day become King David.

4) Lastly, centuries later the prophet Micah would proclaim that God was going to do something spectacular from Bethlehem --

        Micah 5:2 (NIV) "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

Bethlehem was ordained as the birth place of the Messiah.

Caesar thought that he was in control of the empire, and that he was ordering the registration that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.  He is not in control, God is sovereignly directing the events that occur.

God sovereignly brings Joseph and Mary to fulfill Caesar’s demands to the very city that King David came from – and the Messiah was to come from!

Jesus’ family goes deeply back into the Old Testament.

Jesus’ family:  A Jewish family, from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10 the leadership tribe of Israel), from the family of David (2 Sam 7:1-17), born of a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and in Bethlehem, the city of David (Micah 5:2).

History includes Family.

History is His Story.

God is the one who created family, and God is the one who works through family.  We who parent children are integral in fulfilling God’s purposes. 

Our children may have come to us naturally, or we may have intentionally brought them into our family by adoption; but more important than “how” they came, is that our children have come into our family, and we are God’s agents in fulfilling His purposes in their lives.

The beginning of Luke 2 emphasizes governments, political leaders, decrees, taxes, the power brokers.  They are all insignificant in God’s eyes compared to the family that came to Bethlehem – the house of bread – where the “living bread” first came.

Remember that.  The news we get emphasizes the powerful, the rich, the famous; but God comes through a poor unknown couple… think about it!

Peace