Happy Wednesday morning! Whee, the buy-something-from-us e-mails are starting to look like Christmas is coming closer by the day. Out of 23 messages in the ol' inbox this morning, 14 are of the buy something type. As the sun rises this morning, I am also reminded that writing the devotional at dawn is not a sign of writing all that early in the morning during this time of the year. Christmas is celebrated in the northern hemisphere just after the turning of the season. The sun begins to come up just a minute or two earlier each day after we pass the winter solstice around December 21-23. The folks back in the days before electric lighting looked forward with renewed hope to the spring that would come in time, after they endured the long winter. In speaking with Bob yesterday, I was reminded of one goal of my new business, that of giving people jobs. This is the start of winter right now at Awaken the Dawn in more ways that just the calendar. There is no money to hire anyone, not even the chucklehead who started the thing. The spring looks far away to me. This is the time for faith in God and the time to get to work following Jesus. I don't know so many things; that is common with folks starting something new.
I look at my knowledge and resources... time to give up and run away. I look at God's knowledge and resources... and there is every reason for hope that my dream will be realized fully and in more wonderful ways than I am imagining right now. Look at the Christmas story: Joseph finds out Mary is with child. He knows that she has been fooling around and that its time to quietly end the engagement. But! In a dream, God's knowledge of what is going on is sent by way of an angel. The situation is not what Joseph thought it was and there is reason for hope and faith: Mary is innocent, and the child is God's own son! Mary is quietly waiting for her marriage to Joseph, a local carpenter, probably through a family arrangement. The future looks pretty commonplace in her knowledge with the wedding, children, and slowly growing old together. But! An angel arrives, none other than Gabriel himself, and suddenly Mary is going to bear a child who will be Messiah. What is more, she is going to become pregnant without human intervention. Next time you try to get romantic with your wife avoid the word 'intervention', but you get the point. Mary is going to become pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore! Mary and Joseph don't live in Bethlehem, the town the prophet said would produce Messiah. How can this be? In their human understanding, Mary and Joseph probably have no idea. Time for doubt? Nope: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."
Everyone in the Roman Empire, and this was a huge empire, had to go to their ancestral hometown to be registered for the tax to support Rome. In case there was any doubt, both Mary and Joseph had descended from the line of David, also a prophecy for Messiah, and it was, "off to Bethlehem with you!" Since the decree came from Caesar there was no stopping until after the baby was born, no waiting until Jesus was old enough to travel, God acted through one of the most powerful men in the world, perhaps even the most powerful at the time, to make sure that Mary and Joseph would be in Bethlehem in fulfillment of prophecy. What looked like a "no way" from our point of view became a "most definitely" from God's view.
Did the shepherds have a different view that night outside Bethlehem? Certainly! Through the magic of writing we zoom in on two shepherds, Amir and Zevi, in the fields near Bethlehem around 6 B.C.
"The flock is quiet Zev, let's grab some soft turf and get some Z's," Amir uses his oldest joke.
"I really wish you would knock off that 'z' stuff, Amir," Zevi says with mock exasperation, "How many sheep we have tonight?"
"49, the same as we had last night, Z."
The two shepherds take a final glance at the flock munching grass nearby and lay back to look at the stars through the holes in their tent before sleeping; an act known at that time as 'abiding in the field'. Just as their eyelids begin to get heavy and the bliss of sleep overcomes the two simple shepherds...
HALLELUJAH! Hallelujah, Hall- lay- yu -jah! Handel's chorus breaks out, even though the music wouldn't be written down for more than 1700 years. Needless to say the two shepherds feel a strong urge.
"Want to head into town real quick Zevi?"
"You bet, Amir, I feel a terrible urge to run real fast right now!"
"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people!"
"He said to fear not, Amir."
"Easy for him to say, Zevi. I still feel that urge to check out Bethlehem."
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
"Let's go to Bethlehem, Zevi!"
"Amen! He told us what to look for, Amir. Should we wake up Mishael?
"Do you really think he is still sleeping after all that?"
"Probably not, grab him and let's go see this child!"
And then a few wise guys showed up too... okay, I'll stop there for now. In every case we see that what looks dark in our own knowledge can be made light through God's will. That doesn't mean that all will be easy. Mary still had to go through the months of pregnancy; Joseph and Mary had to make the journey to Bethlehem; and the shepherds made haste to get to Bethlehem over an unknown distance. God didn't remove the labor from the stories, but he did enable wonderful things to happen. Some work, some patience, and a little faith, and we will see something grand!
Have a very merry Christmas this year!
Bucky
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