Advent

Advent: Life’s a Journey

By on • ( 19 Comments )

Life’s Journey is not always a smooth ride

Imagine what it would be like two thousand years ago, with no other way to travel except by foot or donkey. Horses were not very popular, as only the very wealthy owned them.

When Mary was nine months pregnant, Caesar Augustus ordered the entire Roman Empire to be registered in a census. To comply with Caesar’s order, Mary and Joseph would have to travel 90 miles across the Judean desert. Imagine hearing this news and knowing your wife is ready to give birth any day! They would be traveling on foot with their donkey, who would be heavily laden with the necessary supplies. It would’ve taken them over a week to travel to Bethlehem. Mary probably would have been able to ride on the donkey at times, in order to rest, but I can’t imagine that being comfortable given her condition. This would not have been a walk in the park, as artists may depict the scene, but rather a grueling trip across intensely treacherous terrain with a woman who was having birth pains!

Traveling across the Judean desert wouldn’t have been the only difficulty Mary and Joseph may have faced on their journey. The Jordan River was known to have lions, wild boar, and bears living along the wooded areas. Bandits, (pirates of the desert) were also very common along the trade routes. The Bible doesn’t say much about their journey to Bethlehem, but when we know the history of that day, the geography, and what a pregnant woman goes through when she is ready to give birth, then we begin to imagine how difficult their travel was.

What we do know for sure is. . . all through Mary and Joseph’s dangerous journey God was with them. His mighty protection covered them, and His grace overshadowed them. Many times we go through difficulties, trials, and circumstances that seem to be impossible. It may even seem like there is no end to the pain we suffer in our lives. But, when we turn to God and ask Him to help us, He does. He never leaves us, or forsakes us, but stays by our side all through the journey. There is always an end to the trial, once we reach the destination God has intended for us.

Categories: Advent, hope

Tagged as: , , ,

19 replies »

  2. Thank you for helping me to imagine their journey — 90 miles across a desert!!! — more accurately. That was an extraordinary undertaking. Nowadays we do very little travel by foot and/or donkey… so it’s very humbling to be reminded about what they accomplished en route to Bethlehem.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Thank you kindly for taking the time to read. Yes, there are so many details which are not written about, but when we know the geography and other conditions we can only imagine just how treacherous of a journey it must have been. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. 😊

      Like

      Reply

    • What an awesome thought, God guides us just as the star guided the Wise Men towards Jesus! Thank you for your insight. Hope you had a Merry Christmas. May God richly bless you🌟✝️🌟

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.