We explored this together with our eighth grade bridge students. First, the story of baby Jesus is told only in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and it is told in two very different ways. We can’t exactly make them work together, nor can we figure out an exact timeline based on them since telling exact dates wasn’t the point of their stories. Calendar systems have also changed. It seems likely that it was within 5 years on either side of what we may consider year zero. It is likely that it wasn’t the winter, as shepherds are not in the fields in the winter. The point of telling the story of Jesus’ birth is not for historical accuracy but to give us hope that God can work in all kinds of circumstances, through unlikely people to share His love with the world. Maybe He can share it through us! —Pastor Trudy
