If you are still in the middle of getting ready for Christmas you probably think, “There’s nothing simple about this.”  And you’re right. Preparing for Christmas gets harder every year, but the simplicity of God’s plan for Christmas couldn’t be less complicated or more beautiful.

Instead of being born to wealthy parents, God chose an innocent teenage girl from Nazareth to be the mother of the Savior of the world. His earthly father was a carpenter. They didn’t have a lot of money. The coming Messiah certainly wouldn’t be raised with the luxuries of this world at his fingertips.

When the time came for His Son to be born, there was no expensive chariot to take the expectant mother and Joseph to Bethlehem. Though the Bible doesn’t specify a mode of transportation, it was likely they walked or perhaps Mary rode on a donkey.

The sleeping arrangements in Bethlehem were not fit for the coming King either. Because of the census that was taking place, Bethlehem was packed and all available inns were filled.

And so, Mary gave birth to the Son of God surrounded by animals in a stable.

And the first people to hear the announcement of the Savior’s birth were not kings or rulers of the Jewish faith, they were shepherds living out in the fields with their sheep.

Back in the days of Jesus, shepherds were considered dishonest, untrustworthy, and unclean thieves. The lowest of the low. Yet God chose shepherds to announce the birth of the Good Shepherd.

Don’t you love how God works? He picked the humble in life to use as examples to let us know all are welcome to His saving grace. Not just the rich, or those born with the right pedigree. All are welcome.  

So, as you celebrate this Christmas season, I hope you remember that the simplicity of that Christmas long ago is the most important, life-changing event in all of human history.

Merry Christmas!

All the best. . .

Mary Alford

www.maryalford.net