Christmas Past and Present

Christmas has morphed quite a bit over the years.   It’s original meaning of course is found in The Incarnation, the coming of Christ Himself to the earth, as He voluntarily humbled Himself to come to earth through the virgin birth.  Now a days, Christmas is celebrated for alot of reasons.  In many places it’s the celebration of The Incarnation of Christ, in others it’s the celebration of the “spirit” of giving, or maybe the “spirit” of commerce?

Actually the facts of the true meaning of Christmas are pretty sobering.   Joseph and Mary, having travelled by foot to their hometown for the census, there wasn’t any place to actually stay.  Maybe they got their too late given the slow journey what with Mary pregnant and all.  And what a pregnancy!  She carried the Child of God.  What’s not talked about much in that part of the story is how great a guy Joseph was to not divorce his betrothed. That’s right, they weren’t married. She had a child out of wedlock and Joseph had every right to ditch Mary but, he didn’t.  Sure, he had a dream and that was a real message from God, but, instead of brushing it off as a some bad fish for dinner, Joseph actually believed what God was saying to Him.  And so, he and Mary were heading up to Bethlehem for the mundane chore of census taking and tax giving.  Ho Hum.

But while on the surface it was ho hum, what was really happening was amazing.  The Christ Child was to be born.  Mary, is a great example of a regular, teenage girl who doesn’t really know what is happening to her, but, she’s okay with it since she trusts God.  She’s willing to say”ok I don’t really get this, but, I do know this, I trust God and this whole baby out of wedlock thing is WAY against my religion and the social norms of my day, but, I’m going with it since I trust You (God)” (see the Bible, Luke 1)

How many of us might be better off if we said the same thing, “I don’t really understand what’s going on here, but, I’ll go with it, since I trust You”.  We might have alot more life in our life!    And who knows what blessing we might bring to others here in the present…what Christmas you or I might bring to someone as Mary and Joseph did in the past….even though in the begininng we have no idea where the end will be.