Day 2
Jesus our brother, kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude
And the friendly beasts around him stood
Jesus our brother, strong and good.
Stay out of Bethlehem. Celia’s tea cooled as she pondered her story options. What Christmas story had not been already written? There’s Scrooge, of course, the ghost of his story hung over many a holiday tale. Celia smiled at her unintended but apt pun. The Gift of the Magi, a story of misguided generosity. The Grinch stewing in his cold mountain cave, hating the Whos, hating Christmas itself. Children’s books covered everything from the North Pole to the mice under the tree. And the manger story! Every possible angle had been done — shepherds, angels, kings, midwife, innkeeper, innkeeper’s wife, cows, donkeys, doves, camels and on and on back to the mice again. There was no way Celia could find an original angle on the sacred story of the “origin of the day.” Maybe from the point of the hay?
Celia’s children had been full of stories — and questions. Did Jesus sleep in an animal’s feed trough? Didn’t he have a bed? Did he like the animals around him? Was he afraid of the cow (sheep, camel, dove). Did spiders live in the stable? What did they feed the donkey? Isn’t hay itchy? They were fascinated by the story of the miraculous birth in Bethlehem. A familiar story yet miraculous still.
No, Celia resolved; she must stay out of Bethlehem.
Advent Challenge: Sometimes Bible stories become so familiar that we lose the wonder we felt the first time we heard them. Moses raised his rod and parted a sea! Jonah survived three days in the belly of the whale! Noah fit a pair of every animal on earth onto a boat! God loved us so well, that he sent his only Son to save us! Read the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem with the eyes of a child discovering it for the first time. Hear the cries of the baby and the sounds of the beasts standing around him. Bring your best gift to him — the gift of your heart.
Prayer: Thus every beast by some good spell, in the stable dark was glad to tell, of the gift he gave Emmanuel, the gift he gave Emmanuel. Oh, Lord, accept the Advent gifts we bring, with full and fresh hearts, to lay before your son, Jesus, our brother, kind and good. Amen
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