#1913 Loose Ends, Driftwood at Christmas

#1913

Loose Ends, Driftwood at Christmas

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

     O morning stars together
     Proclaim the holy birth
     And praises sing to God the King
     And Peace to men on earth

Pain has a price, how much has your faith cost you?  Pain gets us focused, even focused at this time of the year, the heathen spending and spreeing, as believers-"faithers" in humility gift the greatest sounds ever uttered on Earth, just five miles separating the cry of a baby in a manger at Bethlehem, the cry of a man on a cross near Jerusalem.  One cannot be humble without being intimate with God. 

In other articles, other years, this writer has talked about spending Christmas Eve in Bethlehem: visiting the cave under the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born.  I had to crawl through a very small opening because the large doors of that great church have been permanently closed.  You see, the Muslim atrocities towards Christianity are nothing new.  Early Arabs rode their horses into the church and ruined it, just as King Herod would have killed that baby: think of the many small male babies he did kill: and he was a religious Jew. 

It is easy to trust in God, then and now, when all is going well.  Just think, Mary had ridden many miles on a donkey nine months pregnant.  Perhaps she knew the significance of the first worshippers of our savior, those very poor, very smelly, very despised shepherds.  They were the lowest of the low, could not even enter the temple, or give testimony in court. 

Oh, the wonder of it all, the holy of holies surrounded by curtains in the wilderness.  God could only be approached once a year by the high priests.  Now, a small baby, God in man, putting on a tent of human flesh to dwell among us.  Forget the malice of Herod, the worship of the traveling magi.  Again, now as well as then, the trials of this life are really blessings in disguise.  Think of the blessings resulting from brothers putting Joseph in a pit, the Apostle Paul knocked from his horse on the one hundred fifty mile road from Jerusalem to Damascus.  Again, now as well as then, we are left to mourn our country and what has happened to it.  BUT, never give into hopelessness.  Remember, that first cry in the manger, the greatest sound the world had ever known, that last sound on the cross, and the temple veil forever open to all of us for that close-intimate-communion with God.  "The wonder of it all." 

God is often revealed by the absence of God.  One of my assistants has another job working with law enforcement, on her way home from that job, at three in the morning, a small male child, by the highway, a rainy night, alone in the weather.  The hospitalized child is too traumatized to talk, if he ever had.  A popular Christmas carol, "What Child is This".  Can you even imagine the loneliness of this child-deserted-cruel weather, it is bad enough for any of us to go through life alone...think of that tender three-year-old child on a lonely deserted highway?  If anyone doubts the grace of God, think how easily the child could have been run over by a car.  We often hear "mouths on legs" expound on life's responsibilities and opportunities, here was an abandoned child by the highway: maybe by his own mother.  How many political types consider the millions abandoned-discarded everyday in the abortion holocaust of this nation, of this world?  There are three thousand babies killed USA, everyday.  The first time this world traveler was on the mainland of China, I was told that the creeks were full of girl babies, not wanted, because in China's one child policy, only boy babies survive. 

It all began in Bethlehem, from that stable, and I was there, it was the humblest of birth places, from that manger God has sought those valued, those saved, those who trusted that marvelous child, who became a marvelous man, who became sacrifice for the sin of the world.  Everyday, everyway, just as he requires trust from those who believe on him, he manifests trust with us.  This employee left early from her job to go home because she did not feel well, one precious child saved.  Do we trust enough to save others? 

The only difference between Christians and non-Christians, a matter of belief, the only thing that will send a soul to Hell, unbelief...it bothers me that Christians get caught up in the satanic traditions of the Christmas season.  Christ told us to remember him at his table; many of us choose the pilot syndrome, washing our hands of the artificial piety of the season.  But, if your Christmas means more with lights, because he is the light of the world: if your Christmas means more because of gifts, because he is the greatest gift known to mankind: if your Christmas means more when seeing the red balls on the holly tree, because his red blood cleanses from all sin, then you have not lost the true meaning of Christmas.  "But in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in."  (O Little Town of Bethlehem)