Christmas pondering...

Christmas time is upon us once again, it seems to come faster each year! I enjoy Christmas time, but I don't love it. I enjoy the decorations and lights, baking cookies and preparing for Christmas. I have a hard time with the continual media promotion of "The holidays"... Why can't it be Christmas? I know, not every one celebrates Christmas, but a majority of people do, in some sort, I think. I don't enjoy the store's major promotions for Christmas, the commercialism and materialism of it, it is out of control.

I feel like Jesus and His birth have basically gotten lost in the "tinsel and lights" and the flashiness of Christmas. I have been thinking a lot about Jesus and His birth. He left the absolute glory and splendor of heaven. In the book of Revelation, the apostle John nearly can't describe the amazing scene that heaven is... so many colors, rainbows, vibrant gold. It honestly astounds me that Jesus ever left that beautiful place! Let alone for our dingy, dirty and dark earth. He was born in a stable, the place where animals were kept. I bet it was stinky and not clean at all. It was a very lowly, uncommon place for a king to be born, even more THE King of Kings to be born.

I'm sure Joseph and Mary wanted more for Jesus. They could not control the fact that they had to leave their home and travel for the census. Bethlehem was very crowded. There was just no other way. Mary was a teenage girl. She was not anyone special, yet she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. Can you imagine how she must have felt? WOW!

So, this teenage mother and her fiancee "hit the road" for Bethlehem, leaving their home, beds and comfort. I'm sure it was not easy to walk and travel being very pregnant. Yet, Mary did it. She obeyed God and followed His command for her, what obedience!

I can't imagine the surprise and utter amazement of the shepherds, who were quietly tending their flocks of sheep, to see the dark night sky filled with a large group of angels! They obeyed the command that they were given to go to Bethlehem and find the baby wrapped in cloths. If Bethlehem was crowded, it may have taken them a while to find Joseph and Mary. I know I would not have looked in a stable first! But the command to them did say that Jesus was in a manger, so that would have been a clue. But there were probably many stables and mangers.

The conditions were not ideal for sure. But it was God's plan. He gave His Son to come to our dirty earth, born of a teenage mother, with a dirty animal trough for a bed, and was greeted by no-name shepherds, who heard about him from angels in the sky. It sounds upside-down, doesn't it? For the greatest person to ever come to earth in this way? There was no palace for Him to live in, no kingly garments for Him to wear. Yet, He came. He came for you and for me. The Promised King lowered Himself to be a human. He didn't have to do it. But because of His great love for us, for everyone who has lived or does live. We can have His gift of life for free. He paid the price for us, for me.

Wow, just wow. How can I be worthy of this gift? I'm not sure, but I will live for Jesus, and be indebted to Him. What a great God!

Luke 2:1-15 

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’