Have you ever wondered just how God is working in this world? Do you sometimes wonder if He is working at all? Does it appear as though everything is random and no plan at all is being executed?
The world can appear to be in utter chaos from our perspective. We see people running around here and there. Bosses seem to make snap decisions. Leaders appear to have no clue what is going on in the common person’s life. But we are not seeing the world from God’s perspective.
Let’s take a little closer look at what occurs shortly before Jesus’ birth. Caesar Augustus gives the order to conduct a census. He wanted the people counted so he could increase taxes. After all, it’s difficult to collect taxes from people you don’t know exist.
I can imagine Joseph and Mary thinking the order for a census could not have come at a worse time. Mary was approaching her due date to give birth and they had to travel some eighty miles to Bethlehem. Without the modern conveniences of automobile and air travel, it was a three- or four-days’ journey. Not an easy one to make on foot or riding a donkey when nearly nine months pregnant.
Hard to imagine God is working in the life of Caesar. Hard to believe there was a reason behind the decision to conduct the census, requiring Joseph and Mary to make that trip at a very inconvenient time. Yet, God was right in the middle of it.
God used Caesar Augustus to declare the census, so Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem in order to fulfill the prophecy He had given Micah (Micah 5:2), which had been given more than seven-hundred years earlier. We may not see how God is working, but we can trust that He is working, regardless of whether we understand how or not.
I pray we all trust God is working in this world. I pray we trust Him whether we understand or not. I pray each one of us will follow God’s plan for our lives, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense. Know that God is working. Know that He is executing His plan. Trust Him. Follow His plan for you.
Luke 2:1-3 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
Marty Pressey 