Blessed Christmas

Wishing each of you my readers, followers, and yes .. my lurkers !

a VERY Blessed Christmas and holiday season ...

May the joy and peace the Christchild came to bring to hearts and lives

follow you every day of the new year!

I have appreciated so much all of your comments...

and I love you all !!

Thank you !!

A New Look at the Christmas Story

Sometimes we don't realize how easily we filter what we see or hear through the grid of what is familiar to us or according to the cultural defines of our world.

I believe we do this more often than we know with the bible stories or teaching that we have heard all our lives.

I recently read a very interesting book by Kenneth Bailey called "Jesus, through Middle Eastern Eyes". Kenneth is a university professor who spent sixty years living in the Middle East observing first hand the ways and customs of the village people -- so little changed over the last 2000 years.

What he reveals changes some of the details of the Christmas Story that are taken for granted in the telling and retelling of the events as they are understood from our own cultural perspective. We are unaware that the details may well be different than we have been given to understand them.

Let's examine the story from the Middle Eastern culture in which the events of the beloved story took place.

1> The Census-
"So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city." Luke 2:3
When the census degree was issued everyone had to present himself in the city of his birth.
Immediately, we imagine people going back to the city of their birth - a city that has changed and grown. Joseph and Mary would be entering a city crowded with travellers all looking for accommodations .. and just like we have experienced .. the inns, the hotels all have 'No Vacancy' signs hung in the window.
Not so .... in ancient Bethlehem !
Joseph was not travelling to a foreign city. He was going home! Home where many family members still lived. Not only was he going 'home' but he was considered 'royal'. Bethlehem boasted of so many descendants of King David that they affectionately referred to it as The City of David. Joseph was "of the house and lineage of David" meaning that most every house in Bethlehem would be open to him.
To refuse hospitality to a descendent of King David would reflect negatively on the whole community. It wouldn't happen!

So if we accept that Joseph and Mary would not have come to Bethlehem with no where to stay .. how do we deal with the other details of the story as we have understood it?

2> The Inn
But the scriptures specifically say "for there was no room in the inn" , don't they?
Yes.. but ... what is meant by 'the inn' ?
There is a specific Greek word for what we would call a hotel or public inn. That word is used in the parable of the Good Samaritan. But the Greek word used here in the Christmas story is a word that is used only one other time and that is when Jesus sent His disciples to go to a certain house and ask to use the upper room or guest chamber.
We need to understand something about the homes of the Middle East villagers... homes that remained unchanged into the middle of the 20th century.
The homes consisted of two rooms. One of those rooms - either build onto the side of the house or on top of the roof (as in the upper room or as was built for Elijah by the Shunamite woman) was set aside for a specific purpose. Hospitality being of such importance in the eastern culture every home had a 'guest room' where they could put their guests. It was used for no other purpose.
So now we know... the home where Joseph and Mary went to find lodging already had its 'guest room' occupied. Because of that, the babe was laid in a manger. So we have to answer the question of the 'manger'.

3> The Manger.
Again we need to examine the home of the common people of that time. Beside the 'guest room' there was one other room in the house. A long room that was divided by either timber laid across the width of it or a dropped floor.
This division was needed because on one side the family cooked/ate/slept/lived. On the dropped side the animals spent the night. They were brought in at dark and tied.
There were two reasons the animals were brought into the house. One was that the animals kept the house warm and the other was that it kept the animals safe.
At the divide between the animal side and the family's side were one or two mangers filled with straw. If the animals became hungry at night they could eat of the straw provided.
In the morning the animals were taken back out, the area thoroughly cleaned and fresh straw laid in the manger. Many a village babe was laid in this manger for the day. it was perfect !
It was here that baby Jesus was laid - His first bed.
Another misconception we have is that Mary suffered and birthed her babe alone. That would never happened in middle eastern culture. The women would have sent the men out of the house and they would have attended and cared for Mary when her time came. For the family or even villagers to have left her uncared for would have been an unspeakable travesty of hospitality or the blatant neglect of their own.

4> The Shepherds
When the angels appeared to the shepherds that night they gave them a 'sign' saying "and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger".
What was the meaning of the sign? Why was it important for the shepherd to know this ?
Shepherds were considered the poor of the poor -- the lowest on the social ladder. If the angels had come and told them that a King had been born, the shepherds would never have dared to go look for him. They knew they would never be admitted to a palace or even into the home of a wealthy citizen of Bethlehem. But the angel told them "swaddling clothes, in a manger". That told the shepherds that this baby was born into a common village home. Swaddling clothes they understood -- their own children had been so wrapped.. and they all had a manger in their homes. The angels' message to them was that the babe was 'one of them'.

5> The Wise Men
Not only was the babe born for the poor, but also for the rich. The wise men were eager to find the new king - the babe the star directed them to.
We read that they came to the 'house' where Mary and Joseph were -- not a stable, not a cave but a house!
Some have tried to make this fact fit by saying that Mary and Joseph had moved back to Nazareth at this time but that is easily seen to be false just by reading the scripture. After the wise men had come, the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to take his little family to Egypt. This he did and it was after he came out of Egypt that they moved to Nazareth.

I know these details do not change the important message of the story - that Jesus was born a baby... in humble circumstances - that He came to live among us fully man and fully God.
We can still rejoice in the great 'gift' of salvation that He brought with His life and His death.
Jesus - the evidence of God's love toward us and God's desire to live among us.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Created to Sing

(Lazuli Bunting - rare sighting in my backyard)

When I was two years old, my brother was born. He was a sickly baby suffering from eczema and asthma. He had trouble sleeping and gave my Mom many difficult nights. She was very happy if he would fall asleep during the day, allowing her to get some of her work done. Because my brother was a light sleeper, Mom needed to keep me quiet so my noisy play would not awaken him.

I remember one specific day very clearly.

My Mom had just rocked my brother to sleep and she told me I needed to play quietly. She took away the toy I was playing with saying it was too loud. I remember distinctly grappling in my little mind what constituted 'quiet' - why some toys were OK and others not. I could not quite grasp the concept of where the line between quiet and too loud was, but I tried my very best to be 'quiet'.

I thought that I was playing quietly but my brother's sudden cry proved I was not. I remember my Mom being upset that I had woken my brother and I felt crushed -- feeling so bad that somehow I had not done what my Mom needed me to do - and not understanding why.

'Quiet' has to be learned, making 'sound' comes quite naturally.

Our parents tell us to be quiet, we are told to be quiet in libraries, in churches, in school. Not many of us could point to times in our childhood where we were told to be 'noisy' !

And yet, it seems our God loves noise ! and indeed tells us to 'make noise!"

Psalm 98:4 - "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!"

Our God, the creator of all things created everything with the ability to make sound. What an amazing symphony must be heard in the highest heaven where He sits on His throne.

When His creation was finished, God pronounced it as good! And if it was 'good' is it not natural that each part would praise Him?

Praise cannot be silent, can it? If it is, there is no praise.

I don't think I ever considered, until I watched that moving video, that of all of God's creation only man has to ability to choose whether or not he uses his voice to praise God.

Everything else in His creation is programmed to praise Him continually -- even the rocks stand by to praise Him!

If all ability to make sound was created for singing/shouting praise to God, then are our voices not also created for that highest purpose?

And yet... what do we use our voices for ? How many times a day do we raise our voice in 'praise' to God ? To join in with that amazing symphony that encompasses all of our universe and beyond!

I am told that a conductor or composer has the ability to hear separately each note or sound of every instrument or voice in a choir or symphony. How much more then, would God not have that same ability -- to hear every individual sound that rises from His creation. How pleasing it must be to Him when every individual sound blends into the majestic harmony of praise.

And yet -- how often do our individual voices disturb the harmonious universal choir because our voice rather than being lifted up in praise is lifted up in anger, in criticism, in complaining or even in praise of something earthly.

Does our individual 'out of key' voice grate on God's ears the way someone singing out of tune grates on my husband's ears? His sensitive ears can hear even the smallest discord - how much more finely tuned are God's ears ?

I desire - I choose - my voice to be raised in praise to the One who alone is worthy of all praise!

Psa 150:6 "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!"

Psa 5:3 "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up."

Press Play

The other day at breakfast my husband related an experience he had had the night before.

As is his nightly ritual, he was sitting in his favourite easy chair reading his bible. Reading from John 14, he read to verse 13 when he dosed off.

A dream came to him.

In the dream he was looking at a computer screen that had John 14:13 written on it ..

"And whatsoever you ask in My name , that I will do, that the Father maybe glorified in the Son."

But over top of the verse was the triangle "Press Play".

He wasn't sure what the dream meant but the analogy presented itself immediately in my mind!

When we pull up a video or youtube on our computer screens there is the 'press play' button that activates the video. If you don't 'press play' the movie never plays, it stays static, frozen in one frame.

So often we pull up a certain scripture, a promise of God or a commandment and we just sit and look at it frozen in the frame of the printed page. To activate that promise or word of God we need to 'press play'. We need to 'act' on it -- believe it , make it something we live out, something we DO ... not just think about , not just know about , not just be able to read or even recite from memory.

What we believe motivates us to let it change us and determine our life path. Watch the things people do, listen to the things they say and you know what they believe.

Even as Christians, it is not an automatic given that the scripture we are so quick to say is the inspired word of God, is what we allow to be the greatest authority in our minds.

It is one thing to know what God says , but another to have pressed play to activate our obedience to actually live them in our daily life.

God says ... "Forgive others as I have forgiven you!" Do we press play and forgive those who have hurt or offended us ? Or do we stare at the 'screen' thinking of all the reasons why we cannot forgive someone.

God says ... "Do not worry, I will meet your needs." Do we press play and trust that all our needs will be met without us lying awake at night worrying about them? or do we go over and over the things that cause us concern and fill us with apprehension or indecision.

God says.... " Ask in my name and I will do it ... " Do we press play and believe it? Do we confidently expect the answer to our petition is coming or do we live as though our prayers go unanswered.

What scripture verses have stood out to you lately ? What passages are you drawn to ? What words of God speak to your need or situation or walk of faith ? Have you pressed play when you look at them ? or do you hold back ......

"Dear Father, I pray that you would help each person reading this to reach out and press play on your word to them. That their faith/trust in your word would be released with power and authority to play out in and through them. I thank you for your faithful, caring love for each of your children - and I love that you know each of us by name! through Jesus, Amen!"