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(The Twelve Ways of Christmas, Part 7: The Way of Warfare)
December 23
The first thing Ryan Fisher felt when he awakened was an obnoxious cold wind, pelting his face with sleet. The searing pain coursing down his legs and across his chest further aroused him. Opening his eyes, he saw movement outside, but the angle of his SUV in the ditch made it difficult to tell what was happening. One thing was sure – the distant siren and flashing lights were for him.
Another thing became certain pretty quickly. Assuming he lived, Ryan Fisher would spend Christmas alone. There’d be no plane to catch, and nobody boarding a plane back to Birmingham. Not in this storm.
It was the end of the day from hell, punctuating the week from hell, capping off the year from hell. And now, freezing and in shock, Ryan Fisher closed a mental door. He was done. [click to continue…]
Sorry to be the latest to assault your traditional Nativity scene. But this isn’t just an exercise in historical trivia. Something happened near Bethlehem that, in my 50 years, has gone unnoticed or ignored.
Have you ever had times when, for a split second, it seems that God has “parted the curtain” between the seen and unseen world, and given you a glimpse of the Larger Story? You can find one of those in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.
Setting the Scene
Joseph and Mary, both descendants of King David, had returned to their ancestral home town for census and taxing purposes. This shuffling of the population of Israel was a massive undertaking, and caused some serious housing shortages for months. But somebody in Bethlehem (possibly a distant cousin, who knows?) offered them shelter in the place where they kept their animals. This was probably a cave. We don’t know how long they were there before Jesus was born, but it was probably a little time. It doesn’t seem as though ol’ Joe was banging on doors at midnight, hollering, “My wife’s in labor!”
On the day (yes, day) Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph were still in the cave. The animals’ feeding trough became the infant’s first bed.
Then the sun went down, and the drama began. [click to continue…]
