Luke 2:1 - Caesar dictated that 'all the world' should be registered. Of course, not all the world, but all the Roman world. Interesting that they referred to it like that. Surely, they were not unaware that there was more to the world than the Roman empire. Yet, they said 'all the world'.
I am confident that the phrase did not mean what we take it to mean today. I would think that, by extension, when Paul says later in Colossians 1 that the gospel is growing 'all over the world', he referred to Rome. It certainly wasn't growing in South America yet, nor in Japan or Australia. In fact, in most parts of the world in century one, it was unheard of.
Back in the day, one of the silly things I took at face value was the proclamation that the first century Christians evangelized the world in one generation, therefore we should have that as our goal. First of all, there's no evidence that they had that as a goal at all. More importantly, when they spoke of 'the whole world', they meant something different than what we think of regarding that phrase. More like us saying ' the whole nation', it seems. That seems clear from this one verse alone, if you think about it for more than 2 seconds rather than just believing what someone tells you.
Luke 2:15-16 - They saw the angels and went to see. Much has been made that God chose to announce this birth to shepherds. I don't want to take away from that, for certainly shepherds were special to God. Jesus compares himself to a shepherd and David was a shepherd. However, I wonder if perhaps the angels didn't visit others that night as well. Perhaps they did, but those didn't think the announcement was important enough to merit a trip to the city, or perhaps they decided that maybe they had had too much wine and were seeing things. No way to know, but I wonder. These shepherds heard and went.
Luke 2:19 - Mary was always thinking and wondering about stuff too. I think she and I would get along. :-D
Luke 2:22-24 - They went to Jerusalem to be purified and to offer sacrifices and dedicate Jesus to the Lord. I wonder how common it was for Jews to follow this ancient command at this time. Did most make this journey, or did they settle for something else that they could do closer to home? Perhaps they did because of all the angels and predictions concerning Jesus. i doubt it. More likely, God chose them because they were the sort of people to follow the ancient commands because they loved and respected the Lord.
Luke 2:35 - There's something for Mary to ponder!
Luke 2:25-38 - First a man in the spirit and then a prophetess publicly proclaim greatness for the baby Jesus. I wonder what the crown present said or thought?
I'm reading Ben Hur which seems to be a great novelization of the events here (at least the first bit of the novel). It's always amazed me that Mary would later seem to doubt her son's purpose and true being, but then given my own peaks and valleys maybe not so amazing.