Close Cape Girardeau friends of ours have recently returned from a weeklong trip to France, visiting Paris, Caudebec-En-Caux, Rouen, Les Andelys, Honfluer and the D-Day remembrance sites in Normandy.

Trip of a lifetime, no doubt.

If the funds to afford such a journey were available -- an unlikely prospect to be sure at my stage of life -- I'd enjoy visiting Rheims, sometimes spelled "Reims".

It was in Rheims that Army General (later 34th U.S. president) Dwight D. Eisenhower had his headquarters as supreme Allied commander during World War II.

Rheims is France's 12th most populous city and was the location for the original May 7, 1945, surrender of Nazi Germany.

Note the word "original" in the preceding sentence.

Soviet Union -- now Russian -- officials objected to the Rheims surrender document and would not recognize it, necessitating a second signing the next day in Berlin, Germany, formally ending WWII in Europe.

Without a document recognized by all parties, hostilities would not have ceased.

Biblical relevance

With the Dec. 3 start to the Advent season, we are reminded a document, in the form of a Roman decree, launched the birth story of Jesus.

In the words of the World English Bible translation, note the words from Luke 2:1-7:

Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David's city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David -- to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as his wife, being pregnant. While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.

We take documents seriously.

In buying property, closing paperwork with the force of law makes a purchase legal.

In paying taxes, a form -- either submitted via U.S. mail or digitally -- tells Internal Revenue Service bureaucrats whether we have done our financial duty as citizens.

In getting married, a license is filed with the county to formalize the union of two people.

We could go for many column inches citing other examples of the importance of documentation but the point is made.

Documents rule our world now just as they did two millennia ago.

In Jesus' day, a document -- a government decree -- compelled Joseph to go to Bethlehem. His wife Mary, about to give birth, went with him and the greatest birth story in human history unfolded in what is now Palestinian territory -- the site of so much of the world's trauma in late 2023.

An ancient scrap of parchment laid the groundwork for the life of the One who came to save, the One whom the prophets foretold, the One whom Isaiah called the Prince of Peace and the One in whose name millions gather each Sunday.

Friends, we've got it in writing.

I wish you a blessed Christmas season.