viewoutsidethepew

I want to share a Merry Christmas to my blogging Community. This gives me a chance to say again how much value there is to me to have people from all over the world sharing faith in Jesus. Even though it is unlikely that Jesus was born in December (my research leads me to consider a Passover date in the spring the most likely) we cannot know the date. God hid it on purpose, obviously.

But remembering the coming in the flesh as human the Messiah who loved the world so much that nothing was held back, not even life itself, keeps me humble and hopeful. (“This is how you can recognize God’s Spirit: Every person who declares that Jesus Christ has come as a human has the Spirit that is from God” 1 John 4:2 God’s Word).

Our Nativity display, Dec. 23, 2012

I also like to ponder how special Mary and Joseph were to parent the Christ. Something about their obedience, honesty, humility, strength, endurance and radical social views made a nest from which Jesus could soar above culture and teach a clear path of spiritual hope. Would I fit such a description? I need to somehow since Jesus was born in me from above. Big shoes to fill, I think.

Would I be as obedient as the shepherds to leave the sheep in the care of the angels and go into town at night (travel at night in those days was nearly unheard of) and meet Messiah, and then tell everyone they met the Good News, even though society looked down on them as lower than the lowest, and hardly human?

Would I travel for years (the Magi took two years to get to the place where Jesus and family lived) in faith, led by a sign from God to meet Messiah? (“When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he became furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the exact time he had learned from the wise men” Matthew 2:16 God’s Word).

Anyway, may we carry on the obedience of such people today as then.

And may you be blessed as the players in the Original Christmas Play were, FOREVER!