Transcript
Speaker: The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members -only mindset. This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
Speaker: Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith. The Normal Goes Along Way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation. It's almost time for Jesus to be born, for God's son to enter the world. And Luke tells us that this is what is happening in the days just before Jesus' birth.
Speaker: In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Now the Jewish people lived in Roman occupation.
Speaker: This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria and everyone went to his own town to register. So Mary and Joseph were going to their hometowns so that the government could know how many people they could tax.
Speaker: 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. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Can you imagine? Mary is nine months pregnant. She is traveling probably on foot or donkey and
Speaker: not at home, probably experiencing pre -labor, having to go and register, not knowing if and when her baby boy will be born. I find it interesting that Jesus was not born in a safe home. Mary and Joseph were travelers. They did not have any place to call theirs
Speaker: They end up, as we'll learn tomorrow, giving birth in a manger because there is no place for them in this town where they are visiting. And there are so many reasons why God could have chosen to have Jesus born this way. And I invite you to think about those today. Why would God's plan include his son
Speaker: being born in a nondescript place, not in a home, not in a palace, not in royal fanfare, but in an ordinary, everyday manger with two people who currently do not have a home.
Speaker: I can think of many possibilities, one being that maybe God wanted Jesus to be relatable. Maybe he wanted Jesus to come in a humble way to show that he is not just for the successful and the wealthy and the special chosen ones, but that he is for everyone. Everyone.
Speaker: that this baby is both so extraordinary and wonderful and special and at the same time so ordinary and common like you and me. This is certainly not what the people of Israel were expecting. This is certainly not what they had envisioned for the birth of their coming king.
Speaker: But it's what God had planned. And so for us, that is enough. And we can wonder in the awe of it all and we can wonder in the question of it all. I invite you today as you prepare your heart for Christmas tomorrow to really contemplate and be curious about why God would send a son
Speaker: to be born to such common people in such a common place, in such a common way. And what implications does that have for you in your life about the plans that God might have for you? Be still.
