by Katie Terry, CLD
We all know that the holidays create busy minds and distracted hearts. Lots of events to attend and meals to prepare. Shopping, celebrating, *doing*. For those of you who are believers in Jesus Christ, you know it’s difficult, at times, to even focus on the Reason for Christmas. Our quick one-a-day Advent readings happen over over-cooked dinners and read to fussy children. We try to open our hearts and hands to the homeless and poor but the guilt of a quality time with our families and a balanced budget way in. Or is that just what happens at the Terry house?!
Festivities aside, the idea of Jesus’ actually birthday and Mary and Joseph’s birth experience is one that is taken lightly. The significance of what happened on Christmas day and how it came to be is amazing, for lack of better words. We have been misinformed by inaccurate storytelling and false illustrations.
My favorite Christmas book growing up was this pop-up, music lead story book of “Silent Night”. The carols (now play very off tune from 20 something years of use) started as you opened the book to a picture of an colorful manger seen. A lovely setting of peace and serenity with the Star of Bethlehem shining on each page. I always imagined Jesus’ birthday as one without struggle or complication because, well, He was God.
Nativity Scene from the book
The Christmas story has been romanticized in movies, songs and pictures. We have come to believe that it was simply a “silent night” and everything just happened easily, perfectly, and peacefully. We need to be reminded that it wasn’t that simple. The Christmas Story is beautiful in that God sent his only begotten Son to save us from our sins. However, the birth of Jesus, although beautiful in its purpose and its outcome, was a dirty and desperate story consisting of two teenagers who were alone, scared, away from home, and delivering their first born in a cold, dark stable.
Matthew 1:18-23
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about : His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Mary and Joseph were far from a upper class, educated society that we would insist on being necessary for parenthood these days. There wasn’t an opportunity to get married, wait 3-5 years, have an established income before bring new life into the world. Mary was the teenage daughter of Heli who belonged to the tribe of Judah. She was engaged to her fiance Joseph, a carpenter. The angel Gabriel appeared to her and told her that she had been chosen for the amazing but also extremely serious assignment of conceiving, bearing, and raising God’s Son. Even though she was confused and startled at first, she accepted this weighty assignment with absolute faith in the Lord. (Luke 1:26-55) Can you imagine trying to process this as a teenage girl?
When Mary told Joseph the news, he planned to break off their engagement. There were strict laws prohibiting sexual relations outside of marriage and he did not want to subject himself, or her, from public shame. An angel then appeared to Joseph and explained Mary’s extraordinary pregnancy and directed Joseph to take her as his wife. (Matthew 1: 19-24) The angel was a big help but as a man, what would everyone think about Joseph supporting what appeared so wrong?
After their relations were on the mend, you’d think these two would get into nesting for their baby, but there was no time to enjoy this pregnancy. Caesar Augustus decreed a census requiring all to register their town of origin. Since Joseph was from the house and line of David, he had to register himself and his bride-to-be Mary to his town of origin in Bethlehem. So, Joseph took 9 month pregnant Mary on a 90 mile journey likely on a donkey’s back to Bethlehem (Luke 2:3-7). Has any other woman rode on a donkey for 90 miles while in active labor?
We know of several families that travel for prenatal care whether that’s for evidence based options or because it’s the closest hospital to their home. Mary and Joseph would not meet their midwife or their physician at the end of their journey. Bethlehem was crowded and there was no place for her to give birth. And as we all know from the songs and stories, there was no room in the Inn and Mary gave birth in a stable with Joseph. Giving birth in a barn with animals, having a teenage boy deliver the baby alone without help, and have her Son lying in a trough for the animal’s food… are those things on anyone’s birth plan?
Teenagers. Away from home, from family, from medical support, from a clean birth environment. Mary relying on the Lord for provision and support. Jospeh for guidance and courage. The Lord definitely took care of them and provided for them, but putting myself in their shoes puts me to tears. Having faith like that in the midst of childbirth, wow.
As a birth professional, I have found such peace and excitement in the true Christmas story. I know this story took place over two thousand years ago but there is so much that moms and couples can relate to them with: the unknowns, the fear, the uncertainty.
I do believe we can learn from Jesus’ birth that there is One we can trust in for our source of comfort, strength and protection even during childbirth.
Andrew Peterson’s song, A Labor of Love, does a much better job of describing these events:
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town
And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to hold
It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
On the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the night
So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
For the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the author of the faith
That could make the mountains move
It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love
It was not a silent night
On the streets of David’s town
Written by Andrew Peterson • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group
I love this video of Labor of Love played with the scenes from the movie Nativity:
I pray you are able to understand the true Christmas Birth Story of Jesus’ through Mary and Joseph. May His love for you become more real and deeper this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas & God bless,
Katie Terry, CLD
“Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia.
Christ the Savior is born.
Christ the Savior is born.”
