THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS ~ Mary & Joseph

I know, I know. You're saying "She's already talked about Mary and Joseph!"

Yes, I have. But I wanted to talk about them together as the parents of God!

Can you imagine?? 

As a parent, what do you teach God?

How do you discipline God?

I'm stumped!!

But I do know what being a parent is so I'm going to step into Mary and Joseph's sandals for a minute and surmise what their world might have been like when they had to hide from King Herod.

So here's Mary still reeling from the angel's declaration that she was going to give birth to the Savior of the world. She and her husband return to Bethlehem just in time to give birth to God in a building with a whole lot of animals.

There's shepherds, the heavenly hosts and, later on, wise men who come to visit the baby after a star guides them to Bethlehem. Here they are, humble, poor people and their son is already famous.

Now, here's a real clincher. Jesus NEVER sinned. He never disobeyed his mom or dad. He never threw a temper tantrum. No terrible twos for this kid. Their job as parents was to keep him safe.

Then an angel tells them that King Herod wants to kill their child. 

The Escape to Egypt    Matthew 2:13-18

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[c]

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and 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. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: