Death occuring near Christmas

May I read a few phrases from the first and second chapter of Luke to introduce the meditation for us this morning:

From Luke 1:5:Verse 24:Verse 26: Verse 39:Verse 57:Ch. 2, verse 1:

Verse 6:"In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. .." "After these days, his wife Elizabeth conceived . ."In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin . ."In those days Mary arose. . . and entered the house of Zechariah . . "Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered.""In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus . ."The time came for her to be delivered."These passages all have something in common. They talk about time: dates, days, hours, months, all according to some grand schem…