One Night Long Ago

It was a night probably similar to this one. A young man, fairly well to do as he was a carpenter by trade, came to town with his wife. As usual, the government had screwed up. The king had decided to have a census and had ordered every man to return to their town of birth to be counted. The place was a madhouse. People were crowding into every place that had a room for rent. The man arrived a little too late to get a room, as everywhere he looked was full up. All the money in the world would not have helped. He searched frantically, because his wife was about to deliver their first child.

All in vain. Then his wife went into labor. Panicked, he redoubled his search and found a cave nearby where some animals were sheltering. It was messy and smelly, but the feedtrough was fairly clean and full of soft hay. The couple took up shelter in that stable and his wife laid in the trough to deliver. That night, their child was born.

He wasn't born in a hospital... he wasn't born in a birthing chamber. He wasn't born at home, or even in a rented room. This poor little boy was born in a livestock shelter, essentially homeless. He could have gotten an infection; his mother could have gotten an infection. Either could have died that night.

No one knows if it happened on December 25th... it likely didn't. But today, 2000 some odd years later, around the world, people still celebrate that night. Many have forgotten why... we put trees around our homes and sprinkle them with colored lights and pretty trinkets. We buy things for each other that we don't need (sometimes don't want) and wrap them up in bright, shiny paper. We flood the towns and create gridlock everywhere we go in our haste to make sure everything is perfect for our parties, creating the same kind of gridlock that happened so long ago in a town called Bethlehem. We overeat, tolerate those who we somehow ended up with as relatives, and sing songs. We retell mythology born of legend and fairy tales, of a fat man in a red suit who magically delivers toys to all the good children across the globe in one night. We watch animated cartoons on TV about these mythologies, including a reindeer born with a glowing nose and a magical snowman who came to life.

There's not any evil in how we celebrate this day. We all have our culture and our customs, to make us feel safe and secure in who we are. But we should take a moment at least, just a small pittance of time in our busy hustle and bustle, and remember what we celebrate. A baby, born in the lowest conditions imaginable. A mother, crying from the pain of childbirth as she lay there afraid for her and her baby's life. A father, helpless and desperate to ensure the safety of his wife and child, doing the best he could and failing miserably.

That child would grow to become the greatest moral teacher ever. He would change the entire world. He would usher in a new religion, one in which God is not some far-off spirit but a friend and father who lives inside each of us. A few knew what this night meant: seers from afar came to that stable that night and presented him with the most precious material gifts that existed, and shepherds fell down on their knees and praised him after leaving their flocks alone and vulnerable. They knew. Perhaps Mary and Joseph, the babe's parents, knew. But in the town around them, people continued to fight for room, continued to buy and sell and trade, continued their daily lives, mostly unaware of what was happening right there around them.

So it is still today.

Merry Christmas, ATS.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Jesus was indeed born in Bethleham but not on 25 December.

25 December is solstice, a pagan holiday.

Jesus was born in either March or April..

It's a riddle we are not able to solve I guess.
But the holy spirits of our Mother Earth does hold the secret to the riddle of the unknown that we celebrate on December 25th of each year.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Thank you and a merry Christmas and New Year to all.

Thank you for reminding people what Christmas is supposed to be about Christ MASS the celebration of his birth.

DeathSlayer I am not so certain, you may like revisionist history a little too much there but since neither you nor I were there we could both be wrong.
We take it by faith, those that try to associate it with astronomical phenomena may be missing the point that the star of Bethlehem may have been an angel rather than a super nova somewhere but does that matter, it is as TheRednech point's out about the Birth of Christ, born in poverty he later walked among the poorest healing and teaching, he also was a Refugee which we in this ever more intolerant world should remember when his mother and Joseph after an angel warned Joseph had to flee in the dead of night just a few day's after his birth into the land of Egypt were likely Joseph had to work to gain shelter for the Christ child and his mother and for a long time they had to stay there until Herod had passed away and it was safe to return suffering God only knows what but one Coptic story I once read said that there was a legend in part of Egypt that Jesus as a child had taken the clay of the Nile in his hands and shaped two doves from it breathing life into them and letting them fly away into the air.

It would be odd therefore that Non Aligned church (not part of the Roman empire or Constantine's church and in fact older than the Church in the west) such as the Syriac Orthodox, Ethiopian and Egyptian orthodox church also practice the celebration of his birth at more or less the same time (January the 8th or 7th this year), so I would argue that the assertion it was probably in March or April may be in error but since I am only speaking from an opinion as are you we both could be well out, however I have no doubt the story of his birth is a reality the meaning of which - God's own sacrifice - has been lost on a materialistic world.

Father Christmas is probably based on a genuine saint but his story was merged with a kind of sanitized Odin based legend figure - odd as Odin on his eight legged horse was a very grim and very unchristian figure indeed.
Modern form of Christmas celebration so loved by retailers has nothing to do with the Christian message though there are still those that take the poor and homeless in at least for a night and that is at least a Christian inspired action, but remember we live in a world governed by the money changers, Christ would overthrow them if people actually listened and obeyed him which in this world they do not, he chased them out and overturned there tables in the temple courtyard remember.

A precious, poignant, and at times painfully funny read this morning, Redneck. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
a reply to: TheRedneck

Jesus was indeed born in Bethleham but not on 25 December.

25 December is solstice, a pagan holiday.

Jesus was born in either March or April..

25 of december also has virgin births by other Gods. I think the 25th of December has some symbology value that was inserted into the christian story..

a reply to: TheRedneck

Originally posted by TheRedneck
…
He would usher in a new religion, one in which God is not some far-off spirit but a friend and father who lives inside each of us.
…

I don’t believe Jesus came to bring another Religion…but the other part of that sentence is spot on and is what the true Spirit of Christmas is really all about imo…

Merry Christmas ATS

- JC

Yep, we are told in scripture.....
The huge caravan of maji was several years after....the real Bethlehem is 5 miles north......not such a long ride on a donkey for a mom to be.....

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
a reply to: TheRedneck

Jesus was indeed born in Bethleham but not on 25 December.

25 December is solstice, a pagan holiday.

Jesus was born in either March or April..

Yep, Christmas gifts match the time of the caravan of Chaldeans from the East.....gift day

a reply to: LABTECH767

a reply to: TheRedneck

Redneck,

That was beautiful. It really paints an image of how most people celebrate this Holiday.

Thank you for reminding us (at least for those who believe) of the 'reason for the Season'.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

originally posted by: Joecroft
a reply to: TheRedneck

Originally posted by TheRedneck
…
He would usher in a new religion, one in which God is not some far-off spirit but a friend and father who lives inside each of us.
…

I don’t believe Jesus came to bring another Religion…but the other part of that sentence is spot on and is what the true Spirit of Christmas is really all about imo…

Merry Christmas ATS

- JC

Jesus ended religion, once and for all
People rebirthed religion, use it for control

Nothing Jesus taught was in any way religion.
Maybe communion, maybe marriage, maybe

But Jesus ended religion

originally posted by: blueman12

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
a reply to: TheRedneck

Jesus was indeed born in Bethleham but not on 25 December.

25 December is solstice, a pagan holiday.

Jesus was born in either March or April..

25 of december also has virgin births by other Gods. I think the 25th of December has some symbology value that was inserted into the christian story..

The solstice IS the symbology value.

a reply to: TheRedneck

What's more likely Joseph knocked up in another case of teenage pregnancy from unprotected premarital sex. Or, God was involved and no sex act was committed by a teenage boy. God must have done it otherwise Jesus would not be divine. Of course, you could argue Jesus was divine precisely because He was conceived out of wedlock.

The Jesus story and the stars and constalations of the zodiac

Back home from a Christmas celebration, where Christ was in full attendance. Good food, good friends, good times, all thanks to the Lord above. A special day.

I believe we tend to get caught up in mythology far too much. We tend to think of Mary riding around with a halo over her head and this serene look of peace on her face. It wasn't like that. Yes, she knew that she was chosen to birth the child who would be the Savior of the world, but she still felt the same pain, the same apprehensions, and had the same frailties and doubts we all have today. The manger wasn't pristine and sparkling; it was a feeding trough where the cattle ate hay. The stable floor likely was made of packed manure. Joseph wasn't simply along as a spectator... this was his wife and child he was trying to provide for. We tend to lose that human perspective.

To those who pointed out the inconsistencies in the way the holiday is celebrated, I know all this. It simply doesn't matter. You're pointing out details that pale beside the meaning of what happened that night.

To those who understood my message, peace be to you. Be happy; your faith is strong and your Father is not asleep.

To all, a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2020. I'll see you on the boards.

TheRedneck