December 24th

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!