[taken with Nikon D40 in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, May, 2013. Full size.]

This Photo Friday I wanted to show you what is perhaps my favorite photo from our trip to Paris.
I found myself mesmerized by this slightly larger than life-size statue of Caesar Augustus (d. 14 AD). I was enthralled by his calm strength and the fact that I was looking into the face of the man who produced the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
–Luke 2:1-6 (ESV)

Of course, Augustus was only the secondary cause for the location of Jesus’ birth. For seven centuries before Augustus, God had revealed through the prophet Micah where the Messiah would be born:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.–Micah 5:2-5

Because the Jesus of history is the Messiah of prophecy, we know that Christianity is not a superstition.