Each year about this time I begin contemplating what it must have been like for Mary to make the trip from Nazareth, her home, to Bethlehem.
This morning I searched Google maps to remind myself once again just how long of a trip it is. On the road, it’s only 95 miles; a little over two hours in a car but Mary didn’t have the luxury of automobile transportation. She walked part of the way and road on the donkey part of the trip. Google told me that walking the trip would take 26 hours.
26 hours of walking for a normal person but how long did it take for a woman in her last weeks of pregnancy. Even if she rode the donkey the entire way, they still couldn’t go any faster than Joseph could walk. I figure they really couldn’t have gone more than 5 hours a day so the trip would have probably taken 5-6 days. Think about that!
A few weeks back Dave and I were out on some dirt roads in our side-by-side when it just quit. We tried everything we could think of but still couldn’t get it started. There was only one thing to do – walk. It was a beautiful afternoon; we had on good shoes and also had a well-used dirt road to travel on (although it was rutted and rough). It took this healthy older couple over an hour to walk the 5 miles back to the main road. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be pregnant and doing the same trip.
Mary wasn’t traveling with a medical team or even a mid-wife. She, with Joseph her fiancé were on this trip together. I’m sure there were others on the same road, headed to the same destination since they had to report for the census but theirs was a different journey. And when they arrived, they couldn’t find a place to stay…
“So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. It was known as the town of David. Joseph went there because he was from the family of David. 5 Joseph registered with Mary because she was engaged to marry him. (She was now pregnant.) 6 While Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to have the baby. 7 She gave birth to her first son. She wrapped him up well and laid him in a box where cattle are fed. She put him there because the guest room was full.” Luke 2:4-7 ERV
Sometimes the road we are on seems rocky and rough. Conditions are not what we would like them to be – less than favorable. But when God designs the path, we can go forward knowing that He is with us and His plans for us are always good.
“ ‘I say this because I know the plans that I have for you.’ This message is from the Lord. ‘I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future. 12 Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will search for me, and when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me.'” Jeremiah 29:11-13 ERV
When God takes you on a road trip, go, knowing that His plans are good!