One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--ADVENTSample

The Year Before--A Look at Jesus' Back Story 

Everyone you meet has a fascinating back story. Just ask them about it. Where did you grow up? Who influenced you most? What factors have shaped your path? What’s important to you; what do you love? 

In the year before Jesus Christ arrived on earth, His back story was being written in the lives of a handful of people living in northern Israel at the turn of the calendar. Real people living normal, mostly insignificant lives. All that changed when God picked them to play a part in the greatest story in history. Same as when He invites us into His story . . . 

For the next 30 days, take a fresh look at a story you think you already know. Meet the people in Jesus’ back story one on one and you might be surprised how much they remind you of people you know, maybe even yourself. 

We’ll start with a peek into what could have been happening in heaven a year before Jesus was born. Then if that’s not crazy enough, we’ll be there when the glory of heaven came to earth. 

Why take such a journey? 

The Bible tells us Jesus invites us to know Him—which is unusual for any leader, much less from God. Since He knows each of us personally—by name, by heart—He invites us to do the same—to know Him—by name, by heart. 

And so He tells us His back story. Where He grew up. Who influenced Him. What factors shaped His life’s path. What’s important to Him. What He loves. 

On the way, we’ll meet the man and woman God chose to be His parents. We’ll get to know His aunt and uncle and cousin and hear some of His family’s stories from that crazy first year they always seemed to be on the road. Every holy and human moment of Jesus’ back story will give us just a little more to know and to love about Him. Every road that we’ll travel leads us to one place—back to Him. 

And as we begin to see the bigger picture of Jesus’s life and mission, we’ll see it’s only the beginning of the best story we’ve ever heard.

Tomorrow: One on one with an angel with a message

In this Bible Plan, we'll be exploring Advent through dramatized accounts of events based on Scripture. Not all of these events are recorded in Scripture, and are used simply as an additional illustration and not to be taken literally.