Let's talk about Christmas...

When I take hold of my "Black Backed Book" and stop to take a good look at the "Christmas" story, recorded in the New Testament, I come away with a whole new way of looking at things. I mean, did you ever stop to think about it?

Gabriel, the angel of annunciation, (that's hi fallutin' religious talk for a big fella that gets your attention right away because he works directly for God and tells it like it is) first went to a lady named Elisabeth, cousin to Mary the Mother of Jesus. Then he flies on down the road to give Mary the "Good News". Now all this would be fine, well and good if we left it right there, but this is where it starts to get good! Although the Bible doesn't name him specifically the next time, he goes to my favorites - "the shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night".

Taking just a pinch of spiritual license here, I'd like to call these old boys the first "farmers, ranchers and/or cowboys". Who else but a bonifide country boy would recognize the importance of "working the midnight shift" with a bunch of dumb animals because the sheep were innocent, and didn't understand "the dangers of the night". But the message of moment, the heralding of the hour, the clarion call of the Creator came first to the simple farmers of the territory. Ah, the profundity of simplicity!

They immediately went to see where the King of Kings lay wrapped up in a feed trough, in back of what became known as the first "Holiday Inn". It wasn't until sometime later when the "wise men" showed up, but that's another part of the story.

And, have you ever wondered about "the star"? I believe it was one, set apart from the creation at the beginning of time, put on a shelf in the store room of Heaven waiting for this exact moment. In the back of my mind I can see God, looking through His blue prints and when everything else was in place, He says, "Oh yeah, go back there and get Me that special Bethlehem star. Bring it to Me right away. I've got a job for it to do". Can you imagine the excitement of the star after having waited from the beginning of creation until now in the dark and dusty resources of "the back room"? Now it gets to shine with a brightness and intensity no other star has ever equalled. It was a one time "gig" but it made history and we're still talking about it today.

Speaking of Bethlehem, did you know that it translates from the Hebrew into the English meaning, "the house of bread"? Irony strikes the cold steel anvil of truth once again when it dawned on me that the babe that lay in the feed trough, was also the one who would feed not only 5000 men (not counting women and children) with 2 fish and 5 loaves, but all humanity with His broken body just 33 years later!

Man, this is gettin' deep and I've got some more thinkin' to do on this subject...the question is, "what do you think about it all"?