The Light of Love

Luke 2:1-7
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

                We begin this morning by looking at the scene in the manger.  Following a long journey of nearly 100 miles on foot and by donkey, Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem.  Dusty, tired and ready for some rest, they looked for the first hotel they could find.  But because of the census, hundreds of people were already jammed into every inn in the city and there were absolutely no more rooms available for the road weary couple.

               Now it would have been a rough trip on foot for a regular couple, but throw in the dynamic of Mary being full term in her pregnancy.  Knowing full well of her being ready to deliver any time, they journeyed to Bethlehem.  It is just hard to imagine what it would have been like to have traveled under those conditions and finding no place to sleep, no place to bathe and no one to care.  But the inn keeper must have had pity upon them and invited them to spend the night in his barn……with his livestock.

               What does this story of the birth of our Savior have to say about Jesus and about us?  We begin by noticing that the place of his birth is in direct fulfillment of the prophecy of Micah 5:2.  It says, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephratha, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler of Israel.  His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”