A Modern Christmas Tale
25th January 2009
It was Christmas Eve; the 3 of us were on our way home from a lovely dinner that we had with our parents (we had arrived earlier to dinner in 2 cars) that night and one of the cars had broken down. It was rather annoying… why did we have to have car problems on the night before Christmas…
It was a long time ago in Bethlehem, their feet were covered with dust; they were struggling to keep their eyes open; it had been an incredibly long day for them. She was pregnant and almost due. He wanted to provide a comfortable bed for her. She was so craving to her rest her weary aching body in a relaxing room. The inn was full; all the receptionist could offer was a dirty stable. The audacity of even offering that… their night before Christmas… the day before their son’s birthday…
Christmas Day, my brother and I were late for church and as we approached the service we saw that the car park was full and thus had to park further away from the church. We decided to take this footpath shortcut up to the church, it was overgrown with weeds and well we had to climb through all of that… and jump a wall to get to the church service. We wanted to go to that service, it was Jesus’ birthday and we wanted to celebrate that. We were determined to get there… to see and remember Jesus…
Shepherds heard about Jesus from some angels. They went to explore and see Jesus. Nothing will stop them. Jesus the King of the World has been born, why would they want to miss an occasion like that? Likewise in an extreme way, some wise men followed a star to know where Jesus was born. Both these groups of people would do all they could, even if that meant “having a little faith” to see and meet Jesus…
Our day of Christmas was an eventful day, from one thing to next; we were surrounded by people throughout the day, and as that day came to an end, I rested my head on my pillow and thought to myself, “what a day!”
Mary & Joseph, after a long day of visits from many people (and surrounded by farm animals) and after hearing prophecies of their new born son… as that day (Jesus birthday’) came to an end I think they possibly could have thought the same thing: “What a day!”
What happened after that day? Jesus’ birthday, well Jesus had another birthday and another one after that and so on and so on, until at the right time, God’s time… Jesus started speaking and living out the truth and love that God Almighty (His heavenly Father) had sent him down to show and share. He started when He was 30; so what was going on in those 30 years while Jesus was growing up? God was not resting; God was still reaching, preparing the hearts of Jesus, and of His people…
Christmas 2008, has come and gone…The January Sales have come to an end, people work on losing their Christmas weight gained… people go back to work and to school… and it seems as if Christmas didn’t even happen. What is happening? God is not resting, God is still reaching, and with His Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus (preached by ordinary people like you and I) still preparing the hearts of His people…
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