It was the night before Christmas
and it's raining.
Spending a quiet night at home
is the best.
I'm thinking of Mary riding a donkey into
Bethlehem being 9 months pregnant.
It was Luke's gospel that says the trip
was taken as an imperial command
because all people had to return to their
ancestral town due to taxes.
That journey is approximately 81
miles (I looked it up) and it
supposedly took them 4 days.
Wow, I hope Luke took some
artistic liberties with that story
and it didn't actually happen that way
he should have given poor Mary a break!
Some interesting tidbits from
the Christmas story..
1) Bethlehem translates from Hebrew to
"House of Bread" possibly due to
the area's significance for
grain production.
2) Jesus, Mary and Joseph's names
translated to Hebrew are: Miriam, Yeshua
and Yossef.
3) The name Jesus literally means
"The Lord is Salvation" in Aramaic.
In Greek, Christ means "the anointed one"
and Messiah means "one who is anointed".
and
4) Some biblical scholars say that
Jesus was actually born in the spring.
It was changed to "Christianize"
the holidays and have them take
over the old pagan days of worship.
Christianity has endured for so long
because the message resonates
with so many people.
It's about hope.
Peace and Hope for the world.
That is my prayer for tonight.
Luke 1:26-28
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel
was sent from God to a city of
Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named
Joseph, of the house of David;
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And he came to her and said,
"Hail Mary, full of grace
the Lord is with you!"
Merry Christmas!
