When we ask my ninety-two year-old mother what she wants for Christmas, she always says, “I just want my little babies around me.”
And now I find myself saying the very same thing when I am asked what I want for Christmas. I can’t think of a thing I want, except my family at home, gathered around my table. I love to hear them laughing and telling stories on each other or on me, like the time I got mad and said a naughty word, broke a dish in the floor, and sent the kids to their rooms.
I love it when my grown son takes a nap on my couch, and my grandson plays computer games beside me at the desk. I love it when my daughter wants to make Italian Cream Cake from scratch, an all-evening project, or asks me for my Watergate salad recipe.
To me, Christmas is all about home and family. One favorite Christmas song reminds us that we’ll be home for Christmas, but it might only be in our dreams. Everyone dreams about going home for Christmas or wishes they had a home to go to for Christmas.
The first family was formed in the garden of Eden, when God brought Adam and Eve together. Noah and his wife and children were the only family saved from the flood in the ark. Abraham and Sarah had the son of promise, Isaac, in their old age. Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob became Israel, with his sons becoming the Israelites.
Jesus was from the family of Abraham. He was a Jew, which means He descended from Judah or “Jew-dah”, the son of Jacob who was renamed Israel. Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown, since he was from the family of David.
“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.” Luke 2:4 NIV.
It was no accident that the time came for Mary to have her baby while they were in Bethlehem. God saw to it that Jesus was born in the hometown of His earthly family.
Jesus’ family had to go home for Christmas, too.