Heaven's Light Breaking: A 5-Day Advent DevotionalSample

Did you know that it’s possible to live a godly life, even though you live, work, or go to school in an ungodly environment? Mary, the mother of Jesus, proved that. Where did she live? Nazareth.

Nazareth, along with Bethlehem, has been romanticized by believers down through the years. But what was it really like when Mary and Joseph lived there?

It wasn’t what you call a destination resort. Far from it.

If Hollywood had been telling it, Jesus would have been born in Rome. Why? Because Rome was the powerful, sophisticated capital of a great world empire. The child Jesus would have grown up in a marble villa wearing a pure white toga, edged in gold.

But God didn’t choose a girl from Rome. Nor did God choose a girl from Athens, the intellectual and cultural capital of the world. He didn’t even choose a girl from Jerusalem, home of the great temple and spiritual capital of Israel.

He picked a teenage girl living in Nazareth.

Nazareth at that time was overrun by Roman soldiers. It was a place where pagan temples had been raised for the worship of countless false gods. Someday some archaeologist digging through the rubble of ancient Nazareth will probably come across the slogan, “What happens in Nazareth stays in Nazareth.”

That explains Nathanael’s reaction when he heard that Jesus was from Nazareth. He said, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

So as Jesus grew up, He became known as “Jesus of Nazareth.”

“Jesus of Jerusalem” would have rolled off the tongue a little nicer. People might have sat up and took notice, thinking, Well, maybe He has something to say, because He is from a great spiritual center. Or maybe “Jesus of Rome.” People would have at least thought, He’s probably very well connected.

But “Jesus of Nazareth”?

Nevertheless, God picked Mary and this obscure place to accomplish His purpose. He picked an unknown girl living in an unknown place to bring about the most known event in human history: The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What do we learn from this? We learn that God seems to go out of His way to pick the most unexpected person to accomplish His goals—to choose the most ordinary individual to do the most extraordinary things.

And that includes you and me.