In this lesson, students learn about the blessing of a place to live.
Devotion
Ruth 1:16 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to abandon you or to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you make your home, I will make my home. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
In our devotion for today, Ruth was pledging her loyalty to her mother-in-law Naomi. She wanted her to know that she would help her at every opportunity. One reason for that help was that she recognized the true God and wanted to continue to worship Him even though she was from Moab.
Ruth says that you can "make" a home. You do that by individualizing it, suiting it for yourself. Ruth and Naomi probably lived in a tent. But they could call it "home" because they recognized it was the place God wanted them to live.
My family has lived in six different houses since we started. Each of them was our home at the time, but as soon as we left, it returned to being a house. God tells us that we will leave our bodies "house" and dwell with Him in heaven. Through Jesus' death on the cross, we have that gift of life in which our home will be in heaven.
So it is proper for us to thank God for both our house because it is the building in which we live, and our home because it is through His love that it becomes a dwelling of love for us and our family.
The lesson
2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 And everyone went to register, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was from the house and family line of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, his wife,[a] who was pledged to him in marriage and was expecting a child.
6 And so it was that while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Nativity of Jesus, by Botticelli, c. 1473–1475
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, when Herod was king, Wise Men from the east came to Jerusalem. They asked, 2 “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose[a] and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 He gathered together all the people’s chief priests and experts in the law. He asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, because this was written through the prophet:
6 You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are certainly not least among the rulers of Judah: because out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people, Israel.”[b]
7 Then Herod secretly summoned the Wise Men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.”
9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. Then the star they had seen when it rose[c] went ahead of them, until it stood still over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with overwhelming joy. 11 After they went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Since they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.
Adorazione dei Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1655 (Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio)