when the young couple completed their long
journey... and arrived in town.
T'was the time of the census, and
men throughout Israel were returning to their hometowns
to register... so that they could be counted and taxed.
One of these men was a man named Joseph-
Yosef, not Joe, and he came from Bethlehem,
which means "house of bread" in Hebrew.
It was a homecoming of sorts for the young man,
but he couldn't find a room for his fiancée, Mary (age 15ish)
and himself, and she was very pregnant with their first child.
So,,, they ended up in a cattle shed, behind an inn...
T'was the time of the census, and
men throughout Israel were returning to their hometowns
to register... so that they could be counted and taxed.
One of these men was a man named Joseph-
Yosef, not Joe, and he came from Bethlehem,
which means "house of bread" in Hebrew.
It was a homecoming of sorts for the young man,
but he couldn't find a room for his fiancée, Mary (age 15ish)
and himself, and she was very pregnant with their first child.
So,,, they ended up in a cattle shed, behind an inn...
grateful for a place to lay their heads... because
Miriam (Mary) was tired and in need of rest and shelter
It was there, in that cattle shed, where Mary gave birth
to a boy they named Yeshua, which is a variant of Joshua,
and comes to us as "Jesus."
At the first Christmas...there were no Christmas lights, nor a tree,
just a young man, a young teenaged girl- and a baby lying vulnerably...
in a cattle trough... and no one knows how many animals,
Other than the love and the sense of wonder that they shared,
Other than the love and the sense of wonder that they shared,
there were no gifts... but the angels did sing of good news... and
to cap it off, they sang their song to a number of unclean shepherds.
No one could've known it then- not even the boldest of among them,
but time itself, or the way we count it, split in two on this day,
with BC (now called BCE) giving way to AD (or CE).
Before his birth, they lived in a world without hope, and then...
there was hope- hope that would never be squelched,
They had no Savior... and then they did. We all did.
The shepherds were amazed, and they knew they had seen a king.
Come morning they were still just shepherds...
to cap it off, they sang their song to a number of unclean shepherds.
No one could've known it then- not even the boldest of among them,
but time itself, or the way we count it, split in two on this day,
with BC (now called BCE) giving way to AD (or CE).
Before his birth, they lived in a world without hope, and then...
there was hope- hope that would never be squelched,
They had no Savior... and then they did. We all did.
The shepherds were amazed, and they knew they had seen a king.
Come morning they were still just shepherds...
but they were never without hope again.
Next, but not at the same time,
some astrologers came from Persia to give gifts of love
and homage...to a baby King whom they would worshiped.
They were "wise men" because they went to great effort to find Him.
Next, but not at the same time,
some astrologers came from Persia to give gifts of love
and homage...to a baby King whom they would worshiped.
They were "wise men" because they went to great effort to find Him.
And because they worshiped him and brought him gifts, knowing
that no one came into the presence of a King empty handed.
Come morning- on what we would now call Christmas Day-
it looked for all the world like any other ordinary day...
with babies crying, women making bread, and men working at their trade...
But that first Christmas was no ordinary day...
and there would never again be an ordinary day...
because a Savior had been born.
God had come to earth, bringing gifts of healing, forgiveness, joy, peace,
love, meaning, hope and salvation to people who needed to be
forgiven. empowered and made new... more than anything else!
Come morning, it was AD, Anno Domini,
because our Lord had arrived in Bethlehem.
Unto us a Savior had been born! Hallelujah!!
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