A road – more like a trail – dusty, desolate; if not for the others on similar treks it would have been downright dangerous.  Still the journey couldn’t have been in the least bit comfortable.  Ten to fourteen days traveling over eighty miles on the back of a donkey is hardly a holiday getaway.  Did I mention she was pregnant?  Nine months.  And a teenager?  Long days, saddle sores, cold nights sleeping … tossing on the ground.  Joseph trying so hard to encourage, to comfort; but he’s a carpenter, not a counselor.  This should be the most wonderful time of his life, building a career, starting a family, celebrating with friends.  But he too is walking this road with Mary … to Bethlehem … to be counted, like some type of commodity.

This was God’s plan for humanity?  For salvation?  This was how the maker of the universe, the one who said ‘Let there be’ would enter our world?  Maybe they heard wrong.  Perhaps their friends were right in calling them delusional.  None of it made sense.  But then, nothing made sense anymore.

What they didn’t know yet was that in just a few days the child would be born, in a manger of all places.  But then there would also be the angels, the shepherds, the wise men … the old man at the temple – waiting.  What they didn’t know yet was that in just a few days, while confusion may follow most of their days ahead, affirmation and clarity would also be there.  Prophesies would be fulfilled. Pondering and praising would begin to replace fear and fatigue.  Joy would enter the world.

This third week of advent is symbolized by the candle of JOY.  Not joy in the moment.  Not even joy in our circumstances, but joy in knowing that the author of all stories has written himself into our journey as well. It is a joy that understands that so important are these voyages through the deserts of confusion and doubt, that even the mother and step dad of the Christ were not denied this adventure.  It is a joy that looks forward, ahead of our present state of affairs, to the forth-told promises of our God as we look back at the road that a young couple walked some two thousand years ago.

Joy to the world -- the Lord has come.

To the King,

David