From Chuck Swindoll:

When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son. At just the right moment, precisely as God had arranged, in keeping with a plan we might call “Operation Arrival,” enters the Messiah. Micah said it would be in Bethlehem, Judah. It was. But I thought Joseph and Mary were of Nazareth, in Galilee? They were. Aren’t those places miles apart? Yes. In those days they were days apart. Then, tell me, how did it happen?

Well, you see, that’s just a small part of the plan. Nevertheless amazing, especially when you consider Mary was almost to term in her pregnancy. Getting them down south in time required fairly good roads, unheard of prior to the Roman takeover. And they certainly needed to be forced to travel. Hence, a required census by Caesar Augustus which forced Joseph to register in the city of his family roots, Bethlehem. But before a Savior could be born, there had to be some natural means of common communication, a familiar tongue that would quickly spread the good news. No problem! That is, no problem now, thanks to Alexander the Great, the father of “Koine Greek.” That language was ripe and ready for the rapid spread of the gospel message through the pen of evangelists and apostles from then until now.

So thanks to good roads, a decision in Rome, and a bothersome census, it happened at just the right place and at just the right time. When an articulate language had a perfect verbal vehicle, a little baby that the world hardly noticed arrived. Rome was too busy building and conquering. Augustus thought he was hot stuff prancing about the palace demanding that census. Yet, in reality, he was little more than a piece of lint on a prophetic page. He was a pawn in the hand of the Commander-in-Chief of what we now call, “Operation Arrival” - the birth of the Messiah and Savior of the world!

Chuck Swindoll