Christmas Story

      If I flee to the dark abyss where chaos rules you are there and you see and make sense of it all. It is a simple matter for you and you are there.

     You tenderly put me together as I grew within my mother. Each and every cell. You were with me creating me moment by moment.

     What a miracle are your doings! Who would believe it if one really thought of it! The miracle of a human being.

     No one can truly hide in the depths. Not only do you see the outward form, you see what is inside the person. You have recorded each of our days before our first breath.

           Inspired by Psalm 139: 11-16

     Over 2,000 years ago God looked upon Mary and was pleased with her. She was a vergin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. God sent his angel to her who said that she would be with child and that she was to call the baby's name Jesus. 

     She didn't know how it could be so seeing as she was a virgin. But the angel told her that the baby would be conceived by way of the Holy Spirit and that he would be the Son of God most high. Mary saw that it was good and praised the LORD.

     When Mary was found pregnant by Joseph he decided to quietly divorce her. But an angel came to him in a dream and told him that the child in her womb was of the Holy Spirit. So Joseph took Mary as his wife. 

     During that time there was a census and everyone had to return to their birth place to be counted. Joseph and Mary left Nazerith to go to Bethlehem. 

     Once they got there they found that all the rooms were taken at the inn so they stayed in a stable. There, Jesus was born. Mary wrapped him in a cloth and set him in a manger. 

     Angels proclaimed the good news of the birth of the Messiah to some shepherds in a field and Magi traveled from another country bringing gold, francincence and myrr. 

     King Harrod was infuriated that a new King was born and wanted to take baby Jesus' life. An angel went to Joseph and told him to take Jesus and flee to Egypt. Harrod, not finding the child, ordered that all the boys in Bethlehem, 2 and under, be killed.

     After the death of King Harrod, God told Joseph that he could go back to Israel and there Jesus grew up in Nazerith. God and people were very pleased with Jesus and the heavenly Father's blessing was with him.

     Such was the birth of Christ Jesus, the savior of the world. How God loves us though we are low and common. He is able to identify with our troubles. He was born in less than common circumstances. Born where they keep animals. And the good news was proclaimed to shepherds who were common workers.

     All these things God ordained. What a blessing it is to know that God identifies with our hardship though Jesus was God and King (and still is today). 

     Jesus was born to good parents who obeyed the law. He was a worker of miracles and a teacher. Yet he had no place to rest his head. He knows what each person is going through and has compassion on us in our struggles.  He knows us in the light and in the dark. And it doesn't matter where we are. Just as he created us in the quiet darkness of our mother's wombs he sees us no matter how out of reach we think we are.