Behind the Scenes of Christmas

If you’re familiar with the Christmas story, it can be easy to read it with a bit of a romanticized or storybook view. The reality is that those involved in the actual events weren’t that different from us.

Given they didn’t have a day-in-day-out relationship, why would Mary want to take such a long trip to see Elizabeth?

Joseph found himself in a complicated and stressful situation. His soon-to-be-wife had just told him she was pregnant. And he knows he’s not the father.

Every five years, the Roman government conducted a census. Each man in the empire was required to return to where he was born, along with his family, in order for the population count to be as accurate as possible. 

As many times as we refer to the birth of Jesus, we usually gloss over the actual birth. And for good reason: Some details are better left unsaid. The Gospel writer Luke does the same thing.

 Once Jesus was born, the world would never be the same. For the days, months, and centuries to follow, people would continue to hear that Jesus came down from heaven, entered the world as a baby, and would grow up to show us what our heavenly Father is like. 

Luke tells us about two prophets who had spent their lives waiting for the Messiah to come. One was a man named Simeon whose patience and faithfulness you can read about in Luke chapter 2. The other was a woman named Anna, who held strong in her faith despite a tragedy when she was younger.

You may have heard about the three wise men as part of the Christmas story. Actually, our Scriptures don’t even say there were three of them—just that they brought three gifts to present to Jesus.

Jesus had just been born, and people were already looking for him. Some people, like the Magi (the wise men) were trying to pay their respects to the promised Messiah. Others, like King Herod, had more sinister motives—to eradicate anyone who would challenge his power. But where was Jesus to be found?

Magi (wise men) had seen a peculiar star in the sky, and they knew it represented the fulfillment of prophecy that a new king of Israel had arrived. They first traveled to Jerusalem, thinking the king would be there, but he wasn’t.

Wise men saw a unique star in the sky, one they knew indicated that a new king had been born. But when the current leader, Herod, found out about a perceived threat to his power, he set out to eliminate him.

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel." (Matthew 2:19)