Is this Christmas hard for you? Joseph would understand. After all, he had to pack up and travel some ninety miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem just to satisfy the whims of the Roman oppressors that were occupying the land of Israel. Worse yet, he couldn’t protect his fiancée Mary, who was well along in her pregnancy, from having to take this stupid and pointless trip. And when they got to Bethlehem, he possessed neither the connections nor the wealth to provide a suitable place for her to give birth. He must have felt like a complete failure.

But things had to be even worse for Mary. After all, she would not have her mama with her when she had her first baby. And after enduring such a long and hard trip, she went into labor, with no epidural and probably no midwife to help her. And after it was all over, Mary didn’t have a comfortable or even a clean place to rest. Her baby’s conception may have been a miracle, but on that first Christmas Eve, she must have been exhausted and hurting. And the only place she had to put her baby was in a feed trough for animals.

Oh yes, Mary and Joseph knew what it meant to be poor and oppressed and helpless, to be tired and lonely and overwhelmed. And this Christmas, maybe you do too.

But that’s exactly why Christmas is such good news. For God didn’t wait for Joseph and Mary to get their act together before coming to visit. No, Jesus came to be with them exactly where they were, in their desperate, hopeless condition. In fact, He came to share in their helplessness and poverty – for who could possibly be weaker or needier than a newborn babe?

Yes, the Christmas story makes it clear that, no matter what our problems may be, Jesus understands them. And He is willing not just to sympathize with us, but to be with us, regardless of what we are going through.

And so, as the writer to the Hebrews urges us, since we have Jesus as our great high priest, and since He can sympathize with all our weaknesses and temptations, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16). After all, could there be a better Christmas gift?

Luke 2:1-7 (NASB)

Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3 And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,
5 in order to register, along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.
6 And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.
7 And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.