By now, the presents have no doubt been unwrapped, the Christmas meal eaten. Family and loved ones have gone. For most of us, after December 25th passes, we put away the Christmas decorations. Christmas is over. But in the story of Jesus’ birth, Christmas didn’t end with His birth.
No doubt, it had been a grueling trip. Imagine being pregnant and being forced to take a four-to-five-day on the back of a donkey.
Once you arrive in Bethlehem, you’re tired and there’s no place to stay except a stable.
And then the moment comes, your Baby is born. The One you have been told would be the Savior of the world. I can imagine both Mary and Joseph would have seen the events that led them to Bethlehem and known it was through God’s own hand that these Biblical prophecies had been fulfilled.
As the exhausted couple stared down at their Son shepherds arrived with another amazing story of how an angel visited them in the field and told them about the Baby’s birth. And how the angel was joined by a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God. The young couple must have been overwhelmed with everything they had seen and heard.
Yet still long after the shepherds left, the events that were foretold in prophecy concerning the Son of God’s birth were not complete. There’s more to the story written in prophecy. Much more.
While we don’t know how much time passed before the Magi arrived, we’re told that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were staying in a house when the Magi followed the star to their location bringing gifts fit for the King.
The gift of gold is significant because gold is a symbol of royalty and power. Frankincense is a resin that was used in ancient times for religious ceremonies. A gift fit for the High Priest, it’s a sign of worship and respect. The final gift mentioned was myrrh. Myrrh is a plant that was used in ancient times for its medicinal properties. Most notable in Jesus’ life, myrrh was a key ingredient in the mixture of spices that were used to prepare bodies for burial.
Once the Magi had delivered their gifts and started for their home, Matthew 2:13-23 tells of how an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, instructing him to take the child Jesus and his mother and flee to Egypt because Herod was searching for the Child to destroy Him. Joseph obeyed and remained in Egypt until the death of Herod which fulfilled the prophecy that “Out of Egypt I called my son.
After Herod figured out the Magi had fooled him and were not going to return to tell him where to find Jesus, he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi fulfilling what was said through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted”.
Once Herod passed away, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
So, Joseph took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. “So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene”.
The birth of our Savior that Christmas morning changed everything for us, but there was so much going on. A story of obedience by both Mary and Joseph. Excitement as seen by the shepherds who were the first to see the Baby and proclaim the news. Wisdom and curiosity brought the Magi to follow the star and prepare royal gifts that would be fitting for the Messiah.
The story of Jesus didn’t end with the manager. It continued throughout His life, His death, and His resurrection. It continues through the lives He changed. And it was all planned out perfectly by our amazing God.
Until next time, dear friends, many blessings!
Mary
Christians Read 
Pie in the sky fantacy fairy tales.
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MSM Yellow Journalism compares to the famous fantasy Santa Claus/JeZeus fraud. This propaganda rhetoric models after the pathetic propaganda made by the post ’48 Arab defeat, that Zionist, following the 1880s Russian pogroms, that they stole the land of Palestinian away from the “red man” original Palestinian inhabitants. Palestine 1922 to 1948 R.I.P. What a farce. The Gosepels/new testament, in point of fact, it mirrors, the forgery of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, written in the late 1890s by the Czar’s Secret Police.
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