Quick Summary:

Emperors are good at decrees. Kings, governors and governments have been crafting decrees for millennia, and of late, corporations have joined their ranks. When Luke says, A DECREE WENT OUT, he puts his finger on what we all know to be true about the way the world operates:
? Events of consequence are set in motion from the TOP. Decisions of import, policies and mandates, originate in Throne Rooms and White House briefing rooms, and congressional pressrooms, and corporate boardrooms, and are disseminated from on high.

But Luke doesn’t linger at the top; no. He moves quickly from the halls of power and the likes of Augustus and Quirinius to set his gaze—and ours—on a pair of sojourners who make their way step by step to an obscure little village called Bethlehem.

And what did it mean for God, the Creator of the Universe, to experience that baby's point of view of looking up from the manger, and all the sensations that came with it, for the very first time? GOD, NOT looking DOWN from above but UP from below? With God in the world as never before, does he not see things differently?
With God in the world as never before, should we not listen differently now, perceive differently?
Or would we rather God not be that close?