She Just Handled It

She Just Handled It

Luke 2 – Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to register all the empire for taxes. 2 – This was the first registration, taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 – Everyone went to his own town to be registered.

Verse 4 – So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem,, because he was of the house and family line of David. 5 – He went to be registered with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him, and who was expecting a child. 6 – While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.

Verse 7 – and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

I recall the recent story of a couple who were on their way to the hospital to deliver a baby when the baby decided she wasn’t going to wait any longer and decided to be born straight into the arm of her father. He had his eyes on the road, one arm on the steering wheel and the other arm waiting to catch his daughter.

Joseph had his eyes on the times and on what was required of him and his family. The law was not going to wait for them to deliver their child in the comforts of a house or an inn. So Jesus was born right on time, wrapped in cloths and placed in a feeding trough.

The father who caught his daughter one-handed was more impressed with his wife for delivering the way she did “It was, like, the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen, She just handled the whole thing.

Mary could probably relate. Nothing about her situation seemed ideal. But she just handled the whole thing and there was Jesus, the Savior of the world, in a feeding trough. He arrived on time! The world would be okay – at least for those who were expecting His arrival.

How about you? Life is not always clean, neat, and tidy. Our timing on things is always out of whack and we have to deal with our civic responsibilities like bills and taxes. But Jesus arrived in the middle of real life. Mary just handled the whole thing and made do with what she had.

And the beauty of Jesus is that He helps us make do with what we’ve got. He makes the money stretch. He makes the food stretch. But most of all He makes the peace and the love stretch so that while our circumstances may make us feel like we lack the room for what we want. With Jesus we never lack room for what we need and we never lack room for faith.

May the story of Jesus enlarge our capacity to believe in our Savior who arrived on time to save us in the midst of all our complicated circumstances. Luke 2:14 – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”