What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? Traditions like putting up the tree on the day after Thanksgiving, buying a special new ornament each year, or opening one gift on Christmas Eve are a special part of the Christmas season.
While we share many traditions, we also add our own unique twists to them. Maybe it’s making pizza on Christmas Eve or throwing an ugly sweater party. Maybe it’s eating gooey cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, or heading to the theatre to watch the Nutcracker every year.
No matter what traditions you have, traditional, or quirky, they are the glue that binds us together during the holidays and help us make memories that last a lifetime.
Here is one tradition I would like to share that will help foster the “Reason for the Season”: Bible reading of our Savior’s birth.
Below is a Bible reading schedule for the next few weeks. Each reading unfolds this beautiful and magnificent story of Jesus’ birth. I encourage you (if you don’t already) to add this to your list of traditions this year, and every year. I like reading from both Matthew and Luke because each has their own unique way of telling this amazing story.
Bible Reading Schedule:
December 12–18 | Luke 1:67–80 | Zachariah’s Prophecy
December 19–23 | Matthew 1:18-25 | Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth
Christmas Eve | Luke 2:1–21 | Jesus is Born, the Angels Tell the Shepherds
Christmas Day | Matthew 2:1-12 | The Wise Men
December 26–31 | Luke 2:22–38 | Jesus is Presented at the Temple
JOURNALING PROMPTS:
The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about 80-90 miles, an estimated 5-day trip by donkey. Interesting side note: It doesn’t state in the Bible that Joseph and Mary traveled by donkey. We presume this detail as it would have been a common form of transportation. Place yourself in pregnant Mary and Jospeh’s shoes. What do you think their travel was like? How hard would it have been on Mary who is about to give birth.
Think about Joseph a moment. What was going through his mind when Mary told him she was pregnant and he knows for a fact it’s not his baby? What kind of man is he to have faith in the Lord, trust the angel in his dream, and go ahead with the marriage to Mary? What does Matthew say about his character?
Luke 2:7 suggests Mary gave birth alone. She would have been in her early teens. What do you think she was feeling? Not only was she very young, but she was giving birth away from her family, in a stable—to the King of Kings!
Take time to marvel in the miracle of the birth of Jesus.
DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE FREE BIBLE READING PLAN WITH JOURNALING PROMPTS BELOW.
Have Faith Everyday 