Heavenly Things

It’s tedious to crawl out all the stuff of Christmas. We are talking primarily about an incredible baby born in a foreign place unknown in the moment, but like all women, I’m sure, she had blankets and hay and whatever might keep a precious infant warm, and the mother had a place to feed her milk (which takes a few days but there is liquid dripping out from the start) to her newborn, while those present probably encourage Mary to rest a bit. I wonder if Jesus was a sleeper or a crier. No one says anything about that. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes so probably couldn’t kick that wrapping off, and He was a sleeper for a while, probably a good baby, as the wise men and other curios visitors stopped by somehow anticipating this was a child who had a spark in Him that no other child had ever had.

It seems odd that people traveling on camels from all over the region would divert their trip to give homage to a newborn that apparently, through rumors and paying attention to the stars, was something new, something very powerful and special, although the newness was probably not obvious to the regular people who were curious,  wandering by, wanting to get a glance at the new baby boy - as we do here even in our days - but not knowing there was something different in the air in that birthplace. It was said to be strange and that no one really could consider or understand, and yet, there was a sharp light in the air, something no one had ever seen before, and this gentle mom surely was quiet and at peace while others oo-ed and ahh-ed just like normal people do over newborns.

I wonder how many billions of births have happened since then on this planet, babies pulled out of vaginas, or taken out of stomachs, babies with strength which surely rode in with some sort of magic. God sent His child who had a whale of a task in front of Him, although He probably didn’t know it yet. However, Jesus knew something because his first chance to get free from His parents, was to slip away from them, I guess, when they went to the Festival of the Passover in Jerusalem. His parents were walking back home - probably there were groups of people returning to their homes on a popular road - when, thinking Jesus was walking in their group somewhere but not worried, which implied a large group traveling together, so they didn’t worry about him for a day. Then suddenly they realized He had disappeared. So, they returned to Jerusalem and took three days to find him in the temple courts, sitting with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

I bet the teachers were more amazed that Jesus knew and understood the tough things as well, without them explaining it in detail. He was enthralled by the words of beauty and life coming out of the teachers and for some reason, Jesus was familiar with the tales, to the words, to the order, to the knowledge which probably most of those there had never heard about, especially from a child. Of course, when Jesus’ parents found him, they were horrified at where He was sitting, and asked Him why He had not told them what He was doing. But Jesus though they would have understood. Of course, He was in His Father’s house. But really, they didn’t understand; in fact, I’m sure no one understood the conversation at that moment. But Jesus, I’m sure, took His mother’s hand and they returned to Nazareth, and from then on, Jesus was obedient - but we are told that Mary understood so many of these things and held them in her heart.

I doubt there was a cloud of angels singing Glory to the World or if they were singing and people on the ground had been looking up into the clouds, the sky, the air to say where is that song coming from and why and was this a message for me and my family? I wonder how many people in that neighborhood - in both Mary’s and her friend’s Elizabeth’s homes were maybe shocked and worried about the going on. Mary had the strength when she was a few months into maternity, to walk to the home of her cousin Elizabeth in Judea, where probably the two women shared pregnancy secrets. At some point, Mary sang her song saying that from now on all generations will be called her blessed “for the Mighty One had done great things for her - holy is His name.” Surely the two women where together three months as the children grew in their wombs.

Was prayer the way we pray with “Our Father” or “Hail Mary” appropriate? Or in the mind of God as He began to bring Jesus into the forefront as His Savior, His Son, and that He was the only one to ever be in that position, being birthed through an angel, already put together and knowledgeable about what He had to do, probably even as early as His pre-youth and without telling them. He went into the Temple — like it was His place already, and from the report we have gotten through the Bible, it seemed the people in the Temple allowed Him to speak and argue and talk when He was still just a child, but Oh, What a child! And I wonder if somehow, they had an inkling that this was a gift from God.

I’m so glad there was no negatives, billionaires, greedy politicians wanting power nor cruel Fox News, or CNN journalists to wake up the world or to bluster up what was happening in those days. Jesus was accompanied by common friends, not royalty. The chief leader, Nero, was primarily anxious to make the powers that be content with the publicity of their reign and any thought of some sort of competition - be it a small one (which Nero may have thought was out of the way, with no power to mess up his reign) - and yet, hmmm, all those rumors, and gasps and reports of this unique child who probably looked like everyone’s else’s child at birth. But somehow maybe there was some sort of miracle, some sort of power guy who had stepped into the realm of Nero’s environment or who had stirred up the powers that be. Well, as history goes, boss Nero could never stop the heart and soul of God’s Son no matter where He was nor how He got from one place to another, at least for 33 years. Thanks Be to God.

~ Rev

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