Luke 2:1-5
"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David."
There is something almost funny about this. Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man on earth, issues a decree. He wants to count everyone in his empire. He wants to know how many people he controls, how much tax he can collect, how vast his kingdom really is. He thinks he is running the show. He thinks he is the one writing history. And all the while, his decree is doing exactly what God planned seven hundred years earlier through the prophet Micah.
Micah 5:2 said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Not Nazareth. Bethlehem. But Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. So how does God get a very pregnant woman to travel eighty miles to the exact town the prophet named. He uses a Roman emperor. He uses a census. He uses the arrogance of a man who thought he was in control to accomplish a purpose that was set before the foundation of the world.
This is providence. Not coincidence. Not luck. The invisible hand of God moving the visible pieces of history to accomplish His purposes. Caesar thought he was building his empire. He was building the runway for the Messiah. The census that seemed like an exercise in human power was actually an instrument of divine love. God does not need our permission to work. He does not need the world to be Christian to accomplish His plans. He uses what is available. Even the things that look like opposition.
I think about the forces in my life that feel like they are working against me. The systems that seem rigged. The people in power who do not know God and do not care about His people. The circumstances that feel like they are pushing me in a direction I did not choose. What if God is using those very things to position me for something I cannot see yet.
What if the thing that feels like an obstacle is actually an instrument. What if the inconvenience is an invitation. What if the road you did not choose is the road God needs you on. Joseph and Mary did not plan this trip. They did not pack their bags and say, "Let us go to Bethlehem so the prophecy can be fulfilled." They went because they had to. Because Caesar said so. And in their obedience to an earthly decree, they walked right into a heavenly plan.
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel." Micah 5:2
Today I am trusting the God who uses Caesars. The God who turns decrees into deliveries. The God who takes the plans of the powerful and bends them toward the birth of His Son. If you feel like you are being moved by forces you do not understand, take heart. You are not lost. You are being positioned. And the One who positioned Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem is positioning you too. Right where you need to be.
With the tenth candle steady and my eyes wide to the hidden hand of providence, I am trusting the God who writes history with ordinary ink. Claire