The Birth of Jesus

The book of Luke tells us that the angel of God said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” And so she became pregnant with the baby Jesus.

Soon after that, Mary went to spend several months with her relative Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, who lived in the hill country, some distance away. The angel had also told Mary that Elizabeth was six months pregnant; beyond the child-bearing age, Elizabeth had been unable to conceive until then.

As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in her womb, she said, “leaped for joy.” This baby, from the womb, recognized the Christ child in Mary’s womb. He was to be John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for the Messiah. The Holy Spirit within him saw the Christ and communicated joy to his spirit.

My friend and Sunday school teacher, whose name happens to be Mary, said this reaction of the unborn baby John to the unborn baby Jesus is a picture of what happens when we accept Christ. The Holy Spirit comes inside us to give us the mind of Christ so that we can discern truth. And so the Holy Spirit in us recognizes Jesus and causes our spirits to leap with joy.

On the previous Sunday morning, a man in our class said he wasn’t so sure all that was possible. In human terms, it is not possible.

Do I believe God can do anything—that he is omnipotent? If my answer is “yes,” then how can I question a pregnancy that happened without human intercourse? How can I question the pregnancy of an old, barren woman? How can I question one unborn baby’s reaction to another unborn baby?

Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

The picture comes from this site: www.dst-corp.com/james/PaintingsOfJesus/NoJS.ht and it is entitled "His Name Shall Be Called Wonderful." The artist is Simon Dewey.


This is a re-print of this entry, from 2007. The picture is different.

The Birth of Jesus

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/birth-of-jesus.html

Mary, Did You Know?

The beautiful Christmas song “Mary, Did You Know?” was written by comedian Mark Lowry in 1984.

According to Lowry’s web site, linked here, his church asked him to write a play for Christmas. In writing the play, he wrote a series of questions that he would like to ask Mary, the mother of Jesus. These questions were later used in the church play as fillers between scenes.

Buddy Greene wrote music for the questions six years later, and the song became “a modern Christmas standard” that “has been recorded by more than thirty different artists including Michael English, Kathy Mattea, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna Judd, Billy Dean, Natalie Cole, Donnie Osmond and Clay Aiken.”

It is an unusual approach to the subject of Jesus’ birth; through the questions, we see it from the viewpoint of Mary. Often when we see things from a different perspective than we are accustomed to, it develops new meaning for us.

At this address on YouTube, you can hear the song sung by Lowry as a background to scenes from the life of Mary—and Jesus.

I pray that you will find great meaning in Jesus Christ this Christmas, and that you will understand in a new way how he was God’s perfect lamb.

Mary, Did You Know?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/mary-did-you-know.html

Lonely at Christmas?

A few days ago, I heard on TV news that the Christmas holiday suicide rate is actually not the highest of the year, as we previously thought. According to recent research, December is the ninth on the list of months.*

That’s good news! Why, you may ask, would that be true? Here are some ideas from a suicide information web site:

--Gatherings of friends and relatives surround and protect vulnerable people.

--Christmas celebrations may evoke positive memories, hopefulness, and a renewed outlook for those in distress.

-- A growing awareness of community resource-type safety nets available especially during this period may bring hope and lessen despair, agencies like food banks, shelters, and outreach programs.

I think there’s a spirit of giving that rises and swells in our hearts this time of year. It makes us think of others, maybe more than ourselves. Maybe we are more prone to pay attention to other people with compassion, more willing to listen and give comfort. That’s how we’re meant to be—not buried in loneliness, but reaching out to others.

Stephen Burns, author of a Discipleship Journal article called “What’s a Lonely Person to Do?” says, “In my loneliness I had become unwittingly self-centered; everything revolved around me.” Through experiences with an elderly woman called “Aunty Lila” in his church, he learned that instead of being self-centered, he could have something to offer, to give comfort to others as he had been comforted.

He quotes 2 Corinthians 1:3-5--

“Praise be to . . . the Father of compassion and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

We are often lonely and feeling alone; we are strangers in the world. Sarah Davis writes, in a short sidebar story attached to Burns’s article, “In many ways, I feel loneliness exists to remind us we’re not at home in this life, to help us see that there is longing within all of us, and to drive us to the cross. The cross is a profound expression not only of sacrifice and salvation, but loneliness, too. So much of what makes us feel lonely is feeling that we are enduring alone, which Jesus did and He took our sin on Himself.”

Concluding the article, Burns acknowledges that all people feel lonely at times in their lives—it’s part of us. His prayer is this:

“In such seasons, may God give us the courage to open our hearts to those around us and to extend our hands to those who need us. Then, even when the times grow lonesome, we won’t be lonely.”

May these thoughts grow in our hearts this Christmas season and lead us to draw near to the Christ child, to be hopeful, to reach out to other people in love and compassion.

*August was found to have the highest incidence of suicide, and September, the lowest.

Lonely at Christmas?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/12/lonely-at-christmas.html

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story”

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story” by my 6-year-old grandson, with a little typing help from his mother, my daughter-in-love…er…law. The story is based on a western painting by Tom Lovell—The Hand Warmer*.

Once upon a time I was with two people who were traveling. The second night a big snow storm came through, and in the morning there was snow all over the place. It was freezing cold.

- It may have been 30 degrees like when it was snowing at our house.-

But we saw that the snow was so high that it went onto the top of the roof! There was a smoking chimney at the top. We went up to it and put our hands over it to warm up. Then we heard a strange noise below the roof. We looked down and saw a person. When he saw that we were on his roof, he said, “Why are you on the roof and putting your hands over the chimney?”

We said, “Because it is so cold out here and we are warming our hands at the chimney.”

He said, “Come into my house. I have the heater on in there.”

We said, “Maybe for a little while.”

So we went into his house and warmed up by the fire place. Then we ate some dinner. We went back outside to keep on our journey.

We said thank you and good bye to the man who let us in his home. We lived happily ever after.

The End.

*On this web site, the artist profile says, "The quality of (Tom Lovell’s) contribution to contemporary western art, prints and posters is remarkable. In 1974, he won the National Academy of Western Art’s Prix de West, was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and won the Franklin Mint gold medal for prints. Lovell has also been featured in Artists of the Rockies and Persimmon Hill."

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story”

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/hand-warmer-christmas-story.html

Christmas Trees in Seattle

Last year at this time, we had the big debate over words. Was it better to say “Merry Christmas!” and risk appearing religious, or to say “Happy Holidays!” and be generic? People actually became hot under the collar about this non-issue. You no doubt remember that.

People are getting crazy again. This year it is over Christmas trees in an airport in Seattle—SEA-TAC. It seems a Jewish rabbi threatened to sue the airport if they didn’t add an 8-foot menorah in celebration of Hanukkah, near the largest Christmas tree. He thought it would be a nice addition.

The Seattle Times reports that the rabbi was horrified when the airport folks decided to take down their nine Christmas trees, rather than appear to be exclusive. They are too busy for litigation and don’t “have time to play cultural anthropologists.” They feared that putting up a menorah would only be the beginning, and they would eventually be forced to include symbols of all the religious persuasions in America.

Well . . . another non-issue. I’m sure the rabbi didn’t intend to start a blazing fire—and neither did the airport people, who were trying to avoid one.

Why can’t Christmas just be a time of love and peaceful co-existence? Surely we could manage that for a few weeks. Instead of fighting, we could be extra-concerned this season about orphans, widows, the homeless, the hungry.

Christmas Trees in Seattle

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/christmas-trees-in-seattle.html

The Season of Advent

This is the season of Advent—the four Sundays preceding Christmas. “Advent” means “coming” or “coming into being or use.” It refers, in this case, of course, to the advent of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Of course, most people know that Jesus was not really born on Christmas day. The actual date of his birth cannot be established with any certainty. In a Google search, we can find numerous explanations, like the very good one linked here, of why his birth came to be celebrated on December 25.

In the early years of the Christian church, the date of his birth was considered to be insignificant; the important time was his death and resurrection. Now, we celebrate it in December probably because, as the New Life web site tells us, “In Rome December 25 was made popular by Pope Liberius in 354 and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first ‘Christ mass’ was officiated by Pope Sixtus III. This coincided with the date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day.”

At any rate, here we are in the sixth year of the 21st century, preparing for Christmas, the season of hope and love. Two things happened this weekend that have touched my heart with Christmas spirit.

Yesterday, I ran into a friend of mine whom I’ll call “Cora”—that’s not really her name. I heard a few weeks ago that she has been diagnosed with bone cancer, and I’ve been in a state of denial about it. She is one of the world’s best people. She was in the grocery store, getting ready to feed 35 family members next weekend. So yesterday, in the canned goods aisle, I asked her if it is true.

Cora said, “Well, yes, and no.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes. She explained that tests show she has the cells in her blood, but it has not caused any symptoms. As she told me about possible treatments and outcomes, I began to cry—I couldn’t help it, right there in the grocery store.

Cora comforted me. She said, “We know that everything is in God’s hands.” I agreed with her, through my tears. She said, “There might be some pain and yucky stuff on the way, but then—just to be with God—that couldn’t be bad!” I agreed, still crying.

Then, this morning in church, my young friend “Crystal” and her four-year-old daughter “Eva” lit the second Advent candle; they were both wearing red sweaters. Crystal helped Eva light it, and then Crystal read a piece about opening our hearts to Christ. As Crystal read, she held Eva’s hand. Eva leaned lightly against Crystal’s arm and gazed up at her the whole time she read, her blonde curls falling back. She smiled while she listened, and her blue eyes told how she adores her mother. Her father died of cancer during this past year. Crystal has been strong and cheerful, as she has been both father and mother for Eva.

It is a time of hope, light, love, giving—because of Jesus, whose date of birth we don’t really know. I feel the glow of Advent.

The Season of Advent

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/season-of-advent.html