Seeking a Homeland for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come

The Nativity is one of the most poignant events in the imagination of the Christian world. Literally, billions of people intimately relate and often times re-create the events surrounding the advent of Christ.  However, the perceived Nativity of the masses has some rather large historical holes in its traditional rendering (I talked about some of these previously here).

One of those "holes" is the idea that Mary, Joseph and donkey (not mentioned by the way - but probably a good assumption for a pregnant woman traveling over a hundred miles) left Nazareth by themselves in a hurry to make it to Jerusalem before the birth of Jesus. Most of this derives from the "no place for them in the inn" myth (see post link above). However, a careful reading of the text gives us no reason to add the unnecessary drama of a hurried delivery to the already fantastic drama of God taking on human form.

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.” (Luke 2:4–6 ESV) 

The phrase "And while they were there" is key - this implies that Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem before she went into labor. If we think about it rationally - we might also conclude that Joseph and Mary were smart enough to know that it was not wise to travel right at the end of the pregnancy. Therefore it seems very likely that they were in Bethlehem a couple of weeks or even a month before Jesus was born. More than that, when one considers that the reason they went to Bethlehem was for a census (i.e. an all-encompassing-people-counting event, with the expressed purpose of cataloging everyone's name for taxation purposes) we can confidently suggest that both Joseph and Mary's parents accompanied them on their trek to Bethlehem, because they too would have been compelled by the Roman government to return to their "father's city" (i.e. Bethlehem). Otherwise, we are left with the problem of the Holy Family's surrounding family ignoring the command of Rome and not going up for the census - leaving them non-registered. I guess a case could be made that they went later or even earlier to Bethlehem - but common sense dictates that proud grandma's love to be around brand new grandbabies - and let's be clear no grandma should have ever been more proud.

Certainly it was inconvenient to have the baby in Bethlehem over Nazareth, but when one considers that much of the family was likely with them during this process that makes even this prospect seem less daunting.