The Road to the Manger: The Epic Origin Story Leading to the Birth of Jesus

Lisa:
Welcome to Thrive in the Mess. I'm your host, Lisa Hutchcraft Whitmer. So hey friend, welcome to a special Christmas edition of Thrive in the Mess.

And there's something that I grew up with my parents doing with my brothers and me and something that we did variations of with our children. when they were little and so I really wanted to share it. It's a special thing that I tend to do each Christmas and I think it's great for any adult, any family.

to walk through with your children and so we're gonna jump in today and look at something kind of special that's a meaningful way to walk through the days leading up to Christmas Christ's birth And you might be like, well, what's the big deal? Why are we celebrating the birthday of a baby born 2000 years ago? And this is something that makes it really special and real to me.

So I hope you enjoyed this this episode and it walks through promises that God made to man. over hundreds of years and every single one of them came true. So if you'd like to grab a cup of hot chocolate and or a Christmas cookie or a candy cane, we're gonna jump in.

And I have a special guest to help me today who I'm really excited to have here. He is my youngest nephew, my youngest niece or nephew, and so the youngest out of all of them. So Sam, welcome to Thrive in the Mess.

I'm glad you're here. You are one of the coolest teenagers I know.

Sam:
Oh, thank you.

Lisa:
And so I'm very glad to have you here. And uh I wanted to just kinda ask you uh first of all I have to let you know I have candy canes for you because I know you like candy canes. And yes, they are now I tend to like some of the cherry candy canes too sometimes.

But uh but these are good too. So a question, what's one of your do you have like a special Christmas memory or a special thing you like at Christmas? With your family.

Sam:
Well, a lot of time I just like eating with the family, just like anything that tastes good, fried bread, turkey. Just anything.

Lisa:
And your mom, you are Navajo, part Navajo, because your mom's Navajo. And uh and so So she makes really good fry breads. Oh yeah, that's really good. We just had some great fry bread with her at Thanksgiving and we hope she'll do the same. Christmas.

Sam:
Oh yeah, me too.

Lisa:
Well you live with her, so you probably but she usually shares which is nice. Yeah, usually. I know you Usually probably not all the times but and you work out. What's one of your favorite um things you do to work out?

Sam:
Uh jump roping, definitely.

Lisa:
Jump roping. Do you jump rope like Rocky?

Sam:
Uh yes.

Lisa:
Oh really?

Sam:
Yes.

Lisa:
That is very cool. I might need to see that sometime. That is really cool. I love that. So do you have any favorite holiday treat?

Sam:
I do like those they have these like big marshmallow things and like they usually toast them And when they're warm, they're really good.

Lisa:
Oh my goodness. Did your mom ever do that at home? Oh when you toast them like that?

Wow, that does sound like a I I don't know how you would toast it at home very much, but wow. Well, so our holidays together, when we're all together, can get rather noisy. There are a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, a lot of love And um so I with this today, I'm gonna share some of this story with you.

And I know you know a lot of this and your family has talked a lot about these things also but i'm just gonna kind of jump in and share some of this story on why do we have a tree here And why do we have all these ornaments?

Sam:
We're gonna find out. Yep.

Lisa:
So long time ago, we're gonna jump back to in the beginning when God created everything. He made everything, uh plants, animals, the ocean, light, dark, and then he made people And he really wanted a relationship with people. He loved his creation and he loves people.

And so we have um These two people who we he would come and walk in the garden with them. It was perfect. Uh like no they had no bad thoughts.

No lying. Can you imagine? Like we can't even picture that because life is not perfect.

But that was the only time it was perfect. And so it was really special. They were able to have special relationships.

with God and everything. And so God gave some specific instructions where they lived. It was this beautiful garden.

And he said they could eat from any tree. in that garden except one. And so God gives us a choice.

He gave them a choice. And we would have done the same thing. Well, and spoiler alert, I don't want to jump through yet.

But God lets us choose to live my way or God's way. And so when I choose my way, there's always gonna be some kind of a consequence. I can hurt people and it's just who we are as humans.

We make choices that aren't always going to be the best. And but God's way doesn't hurt. And it's it's just beautiful and healing.

So what do you think they did? They ate the fruit. They ate the fruit.

And so uh we it's like, would they choose to obey, would they choose to do it their way, would they choose to do it God's way? They didn't. You're right. So sadly, that's what they chose.

So now the special relationship was broken And it was almost like a wall went up and between them and God. And they were embarrassed. They tried to hide from God.

When they used to just come together and be so excited to be with God in the garden there And so here we are in the world that was supposed to have this beautiful relationship with God. And now there's a problem. You know, no longer can we as God's creation get to God, he had to come to us.

And how would we ever have a connection with God the way that God made it to be? We can't get to him at all. So what's our hope?

Well, God had to come to us. And he did. He came to them.

And today we're going to take a look at that. So Um when it and and when that happened, it's call it's a word called sin, S-I-N. And I'm gonna say it a little differently, S-I-N, because what's that middle letter?

Sam:
I want to do Yes. I want to do.

Lisa:
That's right. Totally right. Of that.

I it's all about me, all about Sam, all about Adam, all about Eve. You know, we want to do it our way and we have a dirty heart because That's just what we choose. And everyone's born with a dirty heart.

But how can we get it clean? And I can't clean it with any kind of soap. I used to tell my children I can't clean your heart or my heart with any kind of soap, any kind of cleaning spray.

And guess what happened? God knew he needed to launch a plan And it was a rescue mission. And this, uh he knew our hearts to be clean again.

So things could be the way they were before. They'll never be that way here on earth. But we can have connection and have that relationship.

with God because he still desires that. And no longer could we get to him. He had to come to us.

But we're gonna look at the rescue plan today. And this is one of my favorite things. to do this.

It just has so impacted my life and um I hope it'll be encouraging to you and to anyone watching today as well. And we're gonna look at how God went about this rescue plan and all the different ways he did this to rescue us from this problem called sin. So I brought something that my parents used to call it the Jesse tree.

Now who in the world is Jesse? Well, we actually have a Jesse who's the producer who takes care of recording this. So hello to Jesse behind the screen.

But the tree is not named after Jesse.

Sam:
Oh yeah.

Lisa:
There's a different Jesse So but we'll get to that in a little bit and we're gonna take a look going through thousands of years of history really fast and so we have these ornaments and each of the different pieces in the Bible that we're gonna look at, we're gonna put an ornament up there on the tree. So so where did God's rescue plan begin? It began just moments just moments after they ate the fruit, like you said, and after they sinned.

This was not a long time. God instantly was like, We need a rescue plan. So Sam, there's some verses we're gonna look at This first one, we're going to look in the first book of the Bible.

Do you mind reading that first one there in Genesis? And yeah, go ahead.

Sam:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your os offspring and hers. Genesis three fifteen.

Lisa:
Here's the first thing. God is going to send a rescuer through the human race, through humanity. So that's the first thing.

And as we look at this story, we're gonna look at how Basically, we're gonna start here. So the rescuer for us is going to come from the human race. So that's gonna start.

What did they eat? They ate a fruit. So we have an apple here.

Sam, you wanna do the honors and we'll start in the tree. We're gonna start at the bottom. Then right when we get to the top, we'll get to the rescuer So yes, so here we go.

This this first promise was that the rescuer would come from the human race. And this talk shows represents Adam and Eve. And uh the apple ornament.

So so the next promise is also still in Genesis. Do you mind reading that one? That one's a little longer there.

Yep.

Sam:
Then the word of the Lord came to Abraham A son coming from your own body will be your heir. God took Abraham outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

The Lord said to Abraham, This is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. No longer will he be will you be called Abraham.

Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

Lisa:
So the rescuer is not only coming from the human race. Now it's getting a little more specific. He's going to come from a specific nation.

So we read about stars. So we have two stars, one for me, one for you. So if you can pick one and then hand me one and we'll hang those on the tree here.

Yeah, there we go. And Sam, if we knock something over, it's okay. It's all about Trying to thrive in the mess.

And this is why I had you come because uh I part of me felt like I would knock the tree over. And I may, you never know. I already put my sleeve and the coffee here.

So So the stars are showing the nation. So human race, nation, let's look at the next promise. So it's also in Genesis.

Sam:
You are a lion's cub, O Judah. Like a lion, he crouches and lies down. The scepter will not depart from Judah. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch.

Lisa:
Now, something I want to look at in there, it says the scepter will not depart from Judah. And he'll be a king. So the scepter.

So this promise says the rescuer will be from a certain tribe. We're getting a little smaller. here and that last part of the verse, little side note, they're talking about Palm Sunday.

This is all stuff said way in advance.

Sam:
Connect before Yes, it blows my mind.

Lisa:
It's like that. Uh little emoji, the mind blown emoji. This is like with all of this for me.

It's like mind blown emojis. So uh so I love that. So the specific tribe, we're gonna have a lion.

over there to hang on the tree. And this ornament's gonna be a little heavier, so um hopefully the tree won't fall. But I think we're doing we're doing well.

So yeah, and the lion is to show the tribe of Judah that the rescuer would come from someday. And this is all a fancy word for this is prophecy. Foretold and foretelling.

Okay, so the next promise we're gonna go to the next book of the Bible, Exodus And this will be our next pro this is God is talking to Moses here, but I'll let you take it away here.

Sam:
All right. The Lord said, I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out, and I am concerned about their suffering.

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians. So go now, Moses. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

Lisa:
So now this promise is talking about how the rescuer will come from the Israelites who will be delivered from captivity. And Moses was a part of that And there's more my goodness, there's so much in the Bible about all of this. But for this we're gonna do baby Moses in the basket.

That's a whole nother story when his mom put him to rescue him in a basket. So Yeah, we're gonna put baby Moses on here. And later he helped deliver his people from captivity out of Egypt.

And the rescuer is gonna come through that. So God's gonna get even more specific now with this next one. We're gonna jump to another book in the Bible called First Samuel.

And we're moving along here. Like even in my Bible, we've already we've already done a few verses, and this is like how quickly we're moving along here. So we've already done Exodus.

Now we're moving to um first Samuel. So now we're moving even to a whole nother place here. So this is already what we've we've covered.

Just a few ornaments here. So yeah, it does go quick. So uh go ahead.

Sam:
The Lord said to Samuel, how long you like this first, don't you? Oh yes, yes.

Lisa:
It's your your favorite butt because it's your name. It's a good name.

Sam:
The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem.

I have chosen one of his sons to be king. Samuel asked Jesse, Are these all the sons you have? They are still the youngest, Jesse answered, but he is tending the sheep.

Samuel said, Send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives. So Jesse sent, and had brought him in He had a fine appearance and handsome futures.

Then the Lord said, Rise and anoint him. He is the one. So Samuel took the oil and anointed him.

The spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.

Lisa:
So these are verses that are well in a few verses later it also talks about a son of Jesse of Bethlehem knows how to play the harp. So with this, we're talking about how um God is choosing even a more specific thing here with a certain family where the rescuer is going to come from. So we have a harp ornament since David played the harp when he was out caring for the sheep. And Sam, I thought you'd like that too because Navajo people are sheep.

Sam:
Oh, yeah.

Lisa:
Sheep herders. And I know your mom loves to eat sheep too. Mutton.

So it's So, yes, and so, and this is also where we find out who Jesse is and why we're calling this the tree. So he's the father of David who will one day be king. I'm gonna move some of these down.

And so here we found the family in this promise. And here's another I think there's one more verse there I gave you. Um in Isaiah.

So we're kind of flipping ahead there.

Sam:
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots.

Lisa:
So that's where we're going to have the Jesse tree. Why we call it that? So there's a stump over there.

It's a little stump. And we're gonna put that actually at the bottom of the tree here. And then we'll try to figure out if we can m make Jesse sit on it.

We'll try to see if this'll work if he'll if he'll sit there. So It's a guy with gray hair. And if anyone does this at home, like it's you can come up with all kinds of creative ornaments.

You can make them. You can I we did that sometimes as a family. Oh good, you made him sit.

There we go. So here is Jesse, the father of David. So And so now we're getting a little we did human race and then we did a nation.

We're getting closer and close a tribe. Now we're down to family. So our next promise where we see God told one of his prophets, Nathan, that he had a message for King David.

Now David is king. When he was playing the harp, he was younger. Now he's king.

So let's take a look at that. That's in a book of the Bible called First Chronicles.

Sam:
I will set your offspring over my house and my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever

Lisa:
And offspring is just a fancy word for a child who's gonna be born a long time from now. Like and or sooner. Your your parents' offspring.

My children, your cousins are my offspring, you know. So But in this verse, it's talking about a king that will have a throne forever. That doesn't happen.

Like what? A king that's on a throne forever? But there's only one.

And this promise tells us that the rescuer, it's not just a family, now from a royal family. We're getting even smaller. And so this rescuer will come through David's line and th through his throne.

So we have a king's crown on a pillow over there. Oh yeah. And so that's going to represent this royal family because the rescuer will one day come from this family.

So And then we're and we're moving through again through like four thousand years of history here. So here I'll try to twirl that around. And here we can move more of these over to you because now we're going to move to our second batch of ornaments here showing more promises.

So the next promise Maybe you've heard of the young woman named Esther and she becomes queen. And she's not allowed to just go visit the king whenever. She there's rules of how to do that.

And she learned someone wants to hurt her people. And so her uncle Mordecai sends a message to her in the palace. And you've got the message there, actually.

Sam:
He urged her to go into the king's presence to beg for mercy, and plead with him for her people. Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this

Lisa:
So this is scary. Like to go in front of the king, what are you gonna do? But that's a whole nother story. They're all these stories are amazing to uh real people's lives. Would you say?

Sam:
Incredible.

Lisa:
Oh, th th they really are. And she asked her uncle to get her people praying. And then she says this, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.

And she risked her life to go to the king and ask him to save her people. So, do you think she got in trouble with the king God's uh God's people were praying and no, he listened to her and her people were saved. So this promise shows now that the rescuer who's going to come to so we can have relationship with him is going to come from a chosen nation saved from being destroyed.

So from these this these people. So look what we have over there. We have a real pretty crown.

Not that this crown isn't lovely. But we've a really pretty crown for Queen Esther. And actually purple is a royal color.

So we're going to have uh a little purple on her crown there. So this is showing the rescuers coming from Queen Esther's people, and they were saved and not destroyed. Absolutely amazing.

So Sam, we we keep moving moving through the Bible here with all of these pretty quickly, but here is another promise. And wow, this is getting more specific. Um and it's in Isaiah.

Can you read us that one?

Sam:
Yes. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with the child. and we'll give birth to a son and we'll call him Emmanuel.

Lisa:
Ooh, we have a little hint of a name Um a v emmanuel means do you know what it means? It means God with us. So we've talked about this connection of God launched this rescue plan.

God with us? Well that hasn't happened since the garden. Yeah.

When he was really with Adam and Eve and walking along with them. Just amazing to even think about that And so God with us was going to come. But here, actually, we're not looking at this name as much.

We're looking at how the rescuer will come from a virgin. And his mom will be a lady named Mary. So there's an ornament there.

There's actually Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. And but this is to show that This uh that the rescuer is coming from a specific mother from a virgin named Mary. So yes, here we go.

We're Hopefully the front of the tree won't fall here. I'll hold it while you're while you're doing that. So I love this, all the specific it gets smaller and smaller each time here with each of these promises.

So the rescuer's gonna come to earth here. So our next promise we're getting even closer. God gave a message where he said this, and it's in the book of Micah.

You can go ahead and read that and my this is just showing where we are now. We keep moving through look at all this This is what we've gone through. Now I have a thin Bible that I have here, but all all of a sudden we're like here.

We've already gone through all of that with just all of these here. So go ahead, Sam.

Sam:
You, Bethlehem, though you are small, and 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.

Lisa:
Whoa. This actually says what? A specific town.

We're getting even smaller. So as we're doing this We're getting even smaller, human race, and now all of a sudden we're up to a specific town, Bethlehem. So we have an ornament.

It's this blue one. Watch, I'm gonna get my sleeve in the coffee again. It's that blue one with Bethlehem.

And oh, and our little thing came off of it. I'll let you uh Yeah, so now we know where the rescuer will be born. So we're just getting smaller and smaller and smaller here Here I can tilt that well I don't know we might there we go There we go there we go here it's not gonna fall Here we have the uh little village of Bethlehem where we know the rescuer will come from.

Okay, so as we get even closer, we're learning even more. Now this is in the last book. Of it what's called the Old Testament.

So we're gonna look at this here. Go ahead, Sam. It's in Malachi.

Sam:
I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the Lord Almighty.

Lisa:
So who will be this messenger? who comes before the rescuer. Well, there's one more verse, if you could read that. And this is going to tell a little bit more information about who is this person going to be.

Sam:
and you are to give him the name John, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will go on before the Lord, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Lisa:
And that's when an angel is saying that to a man named Zechariah, and he's saying that his wife Elizabeth will have a son. And so he says, give him the name John. So now we know.

We just learned even smaller. There will be a man named John who is the forerunner. He's coming before the rescuer.

And all of this is coming true. All of these have come true. So another promise fulfilled.

So when John the Baptist, when the rescuer came one day, John the Baptist baptized

Sam:
him.

Lisa:
And so we ha and when he baptized him there was a dove that appeared. So we have a dove there to go on the tree to represent the forerunner because John baptized the rescuer one day. Our tree is getting uh this is great.

I love it. So we have another promise, and this is in the genealogy of Jesus. So let's take a peek at this here.

We're getting pretty close here, Sam. It's

Sam:
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Jesse, the father of King David, and Jacob, the father of Joseph. the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Lisa:
So in that verse that you just read, it talks about Abraham. King David and about Mary. We've heard about all of them so far with our whoa with our ornaments.

But there's a specific protector, and that's Joseph. Mary's husband, and we also hear the rescuer's name here, whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So we finally have heard the rescuer's name too.

But here we're talking about a specific protector, Joseph. And Joseph was a carpenter. And he worked with wood, so what do you think we have to hang on the tree?

I don't know if they had screwdrivers, but we've got a screwdriver to show our carpenter here, so Yes, because he worked with wood and so did Jesus. So he taught his son that would have been what Jesus learned and here we're there we go. And now there's one last promise here.

It's a little longer, Sam, but This is pretty pretty exciting.

Sam:
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town on Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. a descendant of David. The Virgin's name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary.

You have found favor with God. You will be with a child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

His kingdom will never end

Lisa:
So we hear that again about his kingdom will never end, his throne will last forever. So all of these things are coming true, and we see lots of names. and information here that we've heard in other promises.

Again, we hear about David, Joseph, Mary, Virgin, his kingdom will never end. The rescuer is about to be born Sam. And the last promise comes when an angel foretells his birth.

Those words you shared were an angel. who said them. He tells about the baby being born before the baby is born.

Sam:
Wow.

Lisa:
So what do we have? An angel. So here we could maybe put the angel a little higher here.

We'll see if that will work there There we go. We're getting close because the baby's about to come. Okay, so all the promises are answered in these last verses you're going to read here.

Sam:
So Joseph went up to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the line of David. He went there to register with Mary. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, watching their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the angel said, I bring you good news of great joy. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord. So they hur hurried off, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby. the Sephard returning, praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told

Lisa:
just as they had been told. All the promises came together at this moment. Oh my goodness.

It's What an amazing God. The rescue began moments after sin first entered the world. God made promises to men and women as we've seen through thousands of years here.

All of these came true in this moment. And so we have an ornament that shows Where uh when baby Jesus was born, Christ the Lord. So let's see, that might be able to fit at the top here.

So here we go. Everything has all through here, maybe. There we go.

There we go. So from the apple when the rescue plan began, and then Sam The rescuers here. What do you do you have any thoughts on any of this?

Sam:
It's it's insane that it was foretold thousands of years ago. Like it's just hard to believe that, like Wow. And there's hard it's hard to put words into it just like thousands of years before.

Lisa:
Mm. It it really is. That's why I love to read through this myself as I just teach Christmas because it's so powerful and honestly it's one of the reasons why I have chosen to believe in God and trust in Jesus my whole life.

Well since since I was a girl when I chose to have that relationship. And you know, Sam, there are some other verses I'd like you to read here that talk about this rescue plan. Can you read those?

Yes. And then actually in the second well go ahead read the first one and then we'll read the second one.

Sam:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. That whoever believes in him shall not die, but have eternal life.

Lisa:
Now, I want you to read again, but I would like you to put your name in there

Sam:
For God so loved the wor for God so loved Samuel that he gave his one and only son, that if Samuel believes in him, Samuel shall not die, but have eternal life.

Lisa:
And Anyone can do that.

Sam:
Yeah.

Lisa:
For God so loved Lisa. For God so loved Sam. For God so loved whoever's watching today.

Whatever child might be watching, whatever adult, whatever family. So that dirty heart that began way back with Adam and Eve at the beginning here when they ate that fruit Well, Jesus came, he was born, but then one day as an adult, he did die, and he died so we could have that special relationship with him. just like they did at the beginning.

Though it's a little different. We still have sin in our world, but we can have that relationship because he came to earth. God with us, Emmanuel And God loves you so much, Sam.

He loves me so much. It's so amazing, like you said, just all of this. And each person listening.

And uh friend, if you want to choose that relationship with God, you can talk to God right now and say something like this. God, I'm so sorry for choosing to live my way. Please wash my heart.

I want to live your way, God. Thank you for coming to earth to rescue me. And he would love to hear from you.

May Christmas never be the same for you. Sam, I hope Christmas is never the same for you with even walking through all of this, all of the history here and here's what we went through. All of that.

I love that. And all those promises are now fulfilled here. Yes.

And it just changes our Christmas. It changes I it for families, for uh for adults, for teenagers, for children. And um God is amazing and He just loves us so much.

And a new thing, Sam There is a new thriveinthemess. com website and we're going to have this information on there for anyone who might want to walk through it. So I'm excited that we now have a brand new website where we can have information like that.

So friend, you can head to thriveinthemess. com and get a free PDF that you can download uh if you'd like to walk through this yourself with your family or with friends. So friend I hope you join us next time on Thrive in the Mess and Merry Christmas.