So, are you ready for Christmas?

There’s food to buy, things to cook and bake, decorations to put up.

And I wonder if you have bought all your presents. Done all the wrapping?

Let me ask you: Are you the type who does their Christmas shopping at 4pm on Christmas Eve; or the type who has everything bought and wrapped by August?

For those who prepare for Christmas well in advance, you may be interested to know that preparations for the first Christmas took a great deal longer.

It all started way back in the book of Genesis.

In Genesis chapter 3, we are told that a descendant of Eve will come and destroy the work of the devil. Many years later, in the book of Deuteronomy, we read of a prophet like Moses who will be raised up from among God’s people, Israel. Thousands of years later, Jesus said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” (John 5: 46)

In the book of 2 Samuel, a prophet declares to King David that his royal throne will be established forever. Jesus would come from the line of David, who in turn came from the line of Judah.

The Prophet Micah (prophesying hundreds of years before Jesus) said,

“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,

whose origins are from of old,

from ancient times.” (Micah 5: 2)

Somebody from Judah’s line will come - a ruler, whose origins are from old. (I wonder if that means from eternity past – Heaven perhaps?). That person is going to be born in Bethlehem.

And Isaiah prophesied “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” The baby will be born to a virgin. We know Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. And the prophecy said he will be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.

By the time Jesus was born there was great expectation of a coming king, a Messiah, from the line of Judah, through David, yet coming from eternity past; a prophet like Moses; he will be born of a virgin, and he will be God walking among us.

So, the time came for a secular government to announce a census, which meant that the newly married Joseph and Mary (pregnant with child) had to travel to Bethlehem. Upon arrival, she gave birth to a child. God with us in human form had arrived. The first Christmas was literally thousands of years in the making.