MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

It's Christmas Eve...everybody here is asleep except me. I've been trying to play bingo on the computer, but my mind keeps wandering. But, it keeps going to a good place. I finally had to give up a little bit ago and read the story of the first Christmas...in my bible. We all know the story how Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem because there was no place else available.

But, for some reason, tonight my mind keeps going to Mary. Can you imagine how scared that girl was....and she was a girl. Only 13 or 14 years old. We all know it hurts to have a baby. And here she is, in pain, wanting, needing, somewhere she can lie down. And everywhere Joseph checks, they're turned away. I'm sure he was frantic. Mary was telling him she was hurting...find something, anywhere. Finally, someone tells him about this cave where livestock is kept. At first, I would imagine he scoffed at it. But when he told Mary, she said...lets go, somewhere is better than nowhere!

Once in the cave, I imagine Joseph cleaned out a spot for Mary, covered it with fresh hay and straw, left there for the animals, covered it with his or Mary's coat, making her as comfortable as possible. By then Mary wouldn't have been worrying about where she was. Her body would have taken over her mind as she entered that world only another mother could know. All her energies and emotions and thoughts would have been centered on the painful contractions that were bringing her baby into the world. Do you think she was was thinking it was God's baby she was bearing? I don't. It was her baby. She had carried it for nine months, felt it move and kick inside her.

After the baby was born, as she and Joseph examined and exclaimed over how perfect He was, perhaps then, they talked about who the baby's Father was. And gave thanks to HIM for the litle baby He had entrusted to them. Do you think they had any idea of the impact that baby would have on the world?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS

Thank you Mary, for bringing my saviour into the world! Thank you Joseph, for being a godly enough man to take on the task of raising God's son! Thank you God, for giving your son, knowing he would die a horrible death, to save me!