Mary and Joseph had an infant. They both had heard from angels, had seen shepherds. They had promises from God. Some people would say that they should have been amazed.  Some people would expect that they must have been floating or something.

But the truth is, we don’t think about all the in-between times.

What we can assume, safely, is that they were consumed with the activities of daily life. Not consumed in a bad way, mind you. The activities of daily life, when you have a baby, are a challenge.  Mary and Joseph were sorting this out while living in a town far from their own. They had traveled to Bethlehem in the central part of Israel from Galilee up north. It was part of a government census. And when you are trying to make a living while living in an apartment or somehting away from home.

But we don’t have all the details.

This is intentional.

In the gospel of Luke, Luke is telling us a story about the life of Jesus. An orderly account. With the purpose of letting Theophilus, and us, know that the things that have been taught about Jesus are reliable.

So we don’t know all the details about when or if he moved from a manger, about when or if he cried, about when, or if, he started sleeping through the night.

But here’s what we do know.

In the picture we have of Mary and Joseph and Jesus in these weeks following the birth, we find parents doing ordinary things in an orderly way. Being parents.

At eight days, Jesus was circumcised, because that was the thing to do.  

At forty days, they go to the temple for a couple things. Because Mary had to present herself as ceremonially clean forty or so days after the birth. Because there was a tradition of presenting the first-born child to the Lord. Because there was an offering to be made to God.

Mary and Joseph were ordinary, God-honoring, baby caring, sleep-deprived, overwhelmed parents taking advantage of being 5 miles from the temple rather than 91 miles away in Nazareth.

That’s the first suggestion of how to live in a new year. Live an ordinary, faithful, life. Worshipping God. Caring for the kids. Following the customs of God even while living a transient life.

In all the goal setting and resolution making, it may be acceptable to say, “I’m going to take care of my family as if they were God’s.” Not fancy, not extravagant, faithful.