Sunday 15th December

Childbirth.    Its not great really is it?  Well of course, the end result is great but the process is horrible.   Like much of life I suppose.

Ive been watching The Bible on Channel 5 and we have just witnessed the birth of Jesus.  The significantly shortened and sanitised version of course but nevertheless it did bring home once again just what a

dangerous and frankly awful start He had in life.   In the TV version it was pouring with rain and Mary was in labour whilst on a donkey with nowhere to go.  The stable was dirt floor and there was nobody else around.
Poor Mary screeching and wailing on the floor whilst Joseph tried to be helpful.  Perhaps that was what it was like.    Perhaps it wasnt.  We only have the sketchiest of details to go on really.   But whatever the actual physical circumstances , anyone who has ever given birth for the first time can tell you that it is not easy.   First babies can take forever to come.  Labour can last for days and can be rather scary.   Not every time , but lots of times women get exhausted and need help.  Poor Mary.  Whatever the specifics of her delivery we can say without hesitation that it was frightening and painful and she was far from home and her extended family and the local village midwife.   What was God thinking???    He knew when the census would be.  He knew when Jesus would be born.  So why didnt He just shift things about in the diary a bit??   Did He not care about Mary and Joseph?  Why make a terribly difficult thing - being parents to the Son of God - even more difficult?   If I were Mary thats the question I would have been asking.

Of course we know now, with the benefit of hindsight and the explanation of scripture that it all needed to happen that way to fulfil the Old Testament prophecies.  But at the time from Mary and Josephs perspective it must have just seemed baffling and unnecessary and unfair.

30 years after his birth Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted by Satan.   Why did the Son of God need to go through the trial of 40 days of fasting followed by the torment of every temptation which could possibly ensnare Him?  God doesnt seem to cut anyone any slack..... the more obedient the harder the testing it would appear.

  Once again, from our vantage point in history we can see why the wilderness temptations were important.  Apart from anything else the refusal of Jesus to fall for Satans wiles shows Him a victor before He has even started His work.  And it also seems to invest him with power  ('Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee  and the news of Him went out '  Luke 4 14)  But I wonder if Jesus knew that that would be the result as he was battling with the devil under the burning heat of the desert sun?

Perhaps victory and power are what our trials and tribulations are for too.  When we refuse to listen to the enemy, or bow to his temptations we have a testimony .  And our testimony is powerful powerful powerful.  We forget sometimes just what God can do when we speak out as witnesses for Him.  When we are going through the trials it is hard to see anything but the difficulties and problems we face.   We cant see God's bigger picture.  But like Mary we just have to get on with it.  Give birth to that thing God has put inside us no matter how difficult the process , inconvenient the timing or unprepared we feel.   No matter how painful it is
or how alone we are or how far away God seems.  It's called faith in action.  And it is not easy.   Those people who say that Christianity is an easy option really don't have much of a clue  :)

Lord, this Christmas and this coming year help us to resist temptation.   Help us to do the right thing and be the people you have called us to be so that we can know victory and have a testimony.  Bring to birth in us those things which You have been growing and help us to accept the process no matter how messy or painful or difficult.  Because the thing you birth will be full of life and power and truth and hope.