What Does It Mean?

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.  What if Christmas, he thought , doesn't come from a store.  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.  ~Dr. Seuss


Stables are smelly places.  I used to raise horses, when I was younger.  Even clean stables don't smell all that great to people who aren't used to that kind of thing.  Childbirth is not really all that romantic either.  It's a screaming , squalling, messy process.  We want our Christmas scenes to be the pastel, air- brushed ones we see on the Christmas cards every year.  But , really the scene was not anything like that.  Bethlehem was filled to bursting with people come to register for the census, and pay taxes.  So the town was probably full of government tax officers too.   Imagine , a town full of the IRS!  Mary was full to bursting too.  Imagine how tired and weary she must have been!  No room! No room! No room at the inn! Finally, the stable.  Camels, cows, sheep, goats, horses, oxen, all the animals belonging to the innkeeper and those staying with him. Finally, the time arrives, and Mary gives birth to the Saviour, the King of all creation. Not in a palace , full of servants to herald the news, but heralded by the very host of the heavens , to some of the lowest people on earth.  What does this mean to you?  What does it mean to me?  That from the highest HE came, to the lowest ,  to save us! HE left the splendour of His Father's house to be lain among the sheep.  The wonder of this never ceases to amaze!  What if Christmas doesn't come from a store?  What if Christmas is something more?  How should we live if we remember it every day, and keep it in our hearts all year?  

Here's to a stable , the LAMB, and the GREAT SHEPHERD~   Ruby Jeanette