Luke 2:4-22

⁴Joseph belonged to David’s family. A long time ago David grew up in the town called Bethlehem, in Judea country, but Joseph lived in a town called Nazareth, in Galilee country. So he had to get up and go south to Bethlehem, to put his name on the right list.

⁵Joseph took Mary with him. She was his promised wife, and she was carrying a baby inside her at that time.

⁶At Bethlehem they couldn’t find any room to stay in, so they had to sleep in the place where the animals ate their food. Then the time came for Mary to have her baby. She had her baby right there, and she wrapped him up in some strips of cloth and put him down to sleep in an animal’s feed box.

⁸Not far away, on that same night, some men were out in the grass lands looking after their sheep.

⁹Suddenly, an angel messenger from heaven stood there with them, and bright light from God was shining all around them, and they were very frightened.

¹⁰But the angel said, “Don’t be frightened. I’ve got real good news for you, and good news for everyone in the world, too.

¹¹Today a young woman had a baby boy over there in Bethlehem, in the place where David grew up. You go there and you will find him. He is wrapped up in strips of cloth and lying in an animal’s feed box. Then you will know that this message I tell you is true. He is the one that is going to save you people. He is the one God promised to send to be your leader.”

¹³Then suddenly a big mob of other angel messengers came from heaven, and they all praised God and said,

¹⁴“God, you are real great there in heaven. And here on the earth, your people are quiet and happy. You are real good to your people.”

¹⁵Then the angels went back to heaven, and the men said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this baby that God just told us about.”

¹⁶Then they got up quickly and went and found Mary and Joseph, with the baby boy in an animal’s feed box, just like the angel said.

¹⁷After that those men went back to their sheep. They told everyone what they saw, and what God’s messenger told them. Everything happened just like he said. So they praised God and said he is great. Everyone was surprised when they heard these things, and Mary remembered them all her life and thought about them a lot.

²¹The law of Moses said that they had to do a young man’s operation on all baby boys as soon as they were 8 days old. So they did that to him, and they gave him his name, Jesus, at that time. That’s the name God’s messenger told Mary to call him, before she started to carry that baby inside her.

²²The Jewish law is like this, a woman’s first baby boy belongs to God. And after a baby boy is born the mother can’t go into God’s ceremony house or do any of their ceremonies for the next 40 days. It is like she is not clean. Then, after 40 days, she has to go to God’s ceremony house in Jerusalem, and kill 2 pigeons and burn them there, and let the smoke go up to God. This will make her clean again for Jewish ceremonies. So Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem at the right time to follow that law. They took baby Jesus with them.