When I say Merry Christmas

                                                       

 I am in awe of the thoughts I feel have been downloaded into my heart these last few days.
They come with amazing warmth and love that could only have come from God, my Father, my Friend.
I think about that baby, the Christ child sent to us. Sent for us!
I do not know the date of birth.
I could write about how astronomers have been able to take the stars all the way back to the time of Christ’s birth, and indeed there is a splendid star. This star was actually made up of a planet and two stars, looking like a wonder in the skies, and possibly narrowing the time of his birth to then.
Apparently, we do not need to know the exact date; God would make sure we knew if that were the case.

What is important to know is recorded in our Bibles in the book of Luke, the second chapter.
Such a wondrous story written there makes me sit and try to see it all in my heart, the only place I can  really see.

Why Bethlehem?
Why Lambs?

Why Shepherds?

What about that star?

So what it seems we miss repeatedly in this story is this:

Bethlehem is significant because lambs were raised there for temple sacrifices.  Including those for Passover, in the fields around Bethlehem. 

Every day two lambs were required for a daily sacrifice in the Temple, according to the Torah, meaning that 730 were needed each year plus the tens of thousands more lambs needed for Pesach (Passover) as well as for the other religious rituals. Everyone in Israel recognized Bethlehem as being synonymous with sacrificial lambs.

These lambs had to be "without spot or blemish," whole, entire, sound, meaning complete, and is the same word used as "perfect."

The shepherds certainly had an eye for such lambs as these.
So shepherds were told of this birth… this baby, our God, the Christ. Did they behold with their trained eye this child wrapped in swaddling cloths as perfect, without spot or blemish?
Did they know?

Did Mary?
Luke 2:16 And they came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger.
Luke 2:17 And when they saw it, they made known concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child.
Luke 2:18 And all that heard it wondered at the things that were spoken unto them by the shepherds.
Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
Do we know?  I wonder whether we really understand all of this.

What about that star? 

The star followed by the wise men from the east? I cannot help but wonder if it looked like a cross.
No, I cannot find anywhere in scripture that describes this star as having a tail as long as a kite, as one favorite carol implies, but I bet it did. When I see this in my heart, I see the cross!
I see as Jesus said of himself; “I am the Alpha and the Omega!” The first letter of the alphabet to the last letter of the alphabet. Meaning I am the beginning and the end. Yes, that is written in Greek, and Jesus may have said it in Greek. But look at it in the Hebrew language that Jesus spoke as well and his disciples understood. He said, “I am the alef and the tav.” We know that the Hebrew language is one in which each letter is assigned a numerical value, as well as a music note and a pictorial image. The image for Alef is an ox, and for Tav it is a cross! I believe he was telling us he was the first sacrifice and the last one as well!
I picture a cross in the Bethlehem sky, over a baby in swaddling clothes, and shepherds who may have been unaware of their importance in this story. Of sacrifice, the shed blood of the Lamb of God, and it brings me to my knees in wondrous awe.
We read how the skies were filled with angels and the Heavenly Host
praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace and goodwill toward men, while a perfect baby lay in a manger in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling cloths, his destiny the cross.
The Savior of humanity, His blood shed for you and I. 

Let us remember and ponder the birth of Jesus, and remember that wise men still seek Him.

And when I say "Merry Christmas," this is what I am talking about.