Glory in the highest!

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2:14

Their was a custom back in the days when Jesus was born that is very interesting to me. When it came time for a pregnant woman to give birth people would begin to gather outside of her home in anticipation of the baby's arrival. This is probably not much different than when your family gathered for the birth of one of your children, if your a parent. I know for my kids we were blessed with a crowd each time one of our children came into the world.

When the baby was born, one of two things would happen. If the baby was a girl the people would go back home. (In today's world this would not set well with the hormonally charged exhausted mother that just endured hours of labor and delivery....I'm just sayin'.) If the baby was a boy they would sing and celebrate and the mother would be considered blessed. Even today, what woman wouldn't want that, I mean look at all you have gone through! At this point I'm sure you're wondering why this was and you may be a little offended, especially if you are the mother of girls.

Without getting to deep into this discussion the bottom line is that in those days people were looking for the Messiah, their Savior. They had heard prophecy after prophesy of a coming Savior so, in their minds, if they gave birth to a son it would bring them that much closer. It's a lot to digest and would probably take lengthy verbal conversations to fully understand it all but just go with me here.

So here's the interesting part. Go back to the last post about Mary's journey and we see that she was in labor and there's no place for them to stay. They find a stable, which was probably more like a cave but no one knows for sure, and Jesus is born. There was no one gathered outside her door waiting for the baby's arrival and I'm guessing no one was there to help her in the birthing process. Which keep in mind, she had never been through before. I'm imagining this is probably a pretty stressful and scary situation for her. Not the most ideal for your first birthing experience for sure!

So once again, this is all a part of God's crazy plan for Mary. He knew that she would have to make the hard 3 day journey on the back of a donkey when she was way too pregnant for words. He knew that the delivery would take place in a seemingly awkward setting with no one to attend to Mary except for Joseph (and keep in mind this is all new for him as well!) Talk about being up the creek without a paddle! And on top of that, there was no one waiting with baited breath in anticipation of the news that the baby had been born. (Again, see the note about the hormonally charged exhausted woman. That's enough to send you over the edge!)

God did something better. He sent an angel to a group of lowly shepherds that happen to be watching their flock of sheep as they grazed in the fields. This angel was to let them know that a child had been born in Bethlehem. So the angel took the place of the person who would have announced the birth to the people waiting outside. God had a plan...

Once the announcement was made, the Message says: "At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises." Mary deserved something better than neighbors and bystanders gathered to sing songs of celebration. She deserved an angelic choir that sang the songs that could only be sung at this particular birth and that's exactly what she got! They didn't sing any ordinary song they sang one that had been written and arranged by God himself..

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2:14

God and his crazy plans!!! Crazy they may seem at first but how awe struck we are at the result.