The Bethlehem Candle is another name and meaning for the candle lit on the second Sunday of Advent. It signifies preparation, both in the events we are commemorating and in our own lives.
At this point in the story, Mary and Joseph are preparing to go to Bethlehem. Caesar Augustus has demanded that everyone return to the town their family line is from to register. Both Mary and Joseph are of the House and Line of David.
All of this can be seen in prophecy. First, the prophecy that the Messiah would be born from the house and direct lineage of David and second that He would be born in Bethlehem.
Until the census was called, Mary was planning on having her child in Nazareth. Her mother and mother-in-law would attend her, as was the custom. However, when the census was called, she had to go. It must have been very hard to get on that donkey at nine month’s pregnant and leave the two people she would have gotten the most support from in her first delivery.
For us, it reminds us yet again that Christmas is coming and that we should prepare our own hearts. The Advent scene for this week shows the Wise Men a little closer to the head of the table and the angels talking to Mary and Zachariah. The stable in Bethlehem waits for our next candle.
You can use this candle to help your children focus (at least briefly) on what it would be like for Mary and Joseph to prepare for the trip. What might they take? How long is the journey? How do you think Mary and Joseph felt?
In answer, they couldn’t take much. They could only take what Joseph and the donkey could handle. Frankly, the donkey had enough problems with a heavily pregnant woman in its back. That’s probably all it carried.
The distance, as the crow flies, is seventy miles. However, via roads it was probably closer to eighty. It could have taken as few as three days to get there or as long as a week. Considering Mary’s pregnancy, my guess would be the week.
I suspect both of them felt very nervous, and about some of the same things. One of them, obviously, is that she is likely to deliver in Bethlehem without much in the way of family support.
These questions, and any others that come up can take the focus off of Santa and Christmas gifts and place it back where it belongs; on Jesus. There’s nothing wrong with the first two, but only if they take the back seat in our preparations for Christmas.