You're listening to Encounter, a simple daily podcast of sacred and mindful Christian

meditations.

You can listen here, but if you would enjoy being able to search and favor it, forward

and journal as you listen, I encourage you to download the encountering piece mobile

app where all the meditations are free as they should be.

As the tiny caravan of ancient astrologers and wise oracles snake sits way east through

the uncharted desert sands, the evening crowds in this tiny hamlet of Bethlehem grow larger.

People are pouring back into town to register their names according to Caesar's decree.

The young weary couple enter the gates of the village, they are expecting their first

child, and from her silhouette in the dark, you can tell they're expecting it at any

moment.

You can see the agony, the anguish and the tears on this young mother's face.

You see, too, the panic on the father's face.

He must find a place for her to rest, a place for her to lie down, quickly.

The details of Mary and Joseph's conversation at Faithful Night are lost in time, but

we can imagine them responding to a divine revelation that God had given them, that they

will have a son named Jesus, and he will be called the Son of God, the Most High, a

king that will rule the people of Israel forever, and a kingdom that will never end.

What do you imagine they felt, a sense of awe, wonder, perhaps fear, humility, joy, maybe

all of those?

Well this meditation from Luke chapter 2 will follow Mary and Joseph on their passage

that evening, a passage that opened up earth to heaven and changed the world forever.

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