Nativity

Blog Post
Larry-Lambert

 

 

Editorial Commentary

Revisionist history bothers me. Urban legends spring up around fantasy and, in time, are baked into traditions. I have no problem with fantasy and fiction. I write fictional novels in the hopes of entertaining. However, I like to keep my fiction and my fact (as best it can be ascertained) separate.

This is an alternative nativity story. Some of the things included are my own interpolations, but in many cases, I tried to use the best historical understanding that we have. In some places, I have tried to use words different from what is normal to make you pause and actually think about what is being said. This is a reprint of a previous blog post on Virtual Mirage, but it’s Christmas time, and there are little drummer boys, elves, DEI wise men showing up on Christmas Day, and all manner of talking animals. It bothers me because it detracts. Here is my take on what might have happened. I’m sure that you will disagree with me.

More than two thousand years ago, a young couple about to be married had an unexpected surprise. It turned out that the soon-to-be-wife was pregnant. In their small community in Galilee, this would have been quite a scandal, and in the culture at the time, the shame of having a child out of wedlock would have followed her throughout her life. For her, while it was still a surprise, she had been warned about her coming pregnancy by an angel. In a great act of faith, she accepted what the angel told her and said she would be the Lord’s servant. For the next few months, she stayed with her cousin, who also had a miraculous experience and received a promise that after many years of infertility, she too would have a child. Together, they rejoiced in what they had been chosen to do.

After several months, Mary traveled back to her home and to her waiting fiance. The soon-to-be-husband and unknowing soon-to-be-new-adoptive-father found out that his soon-to-be-wife was pregnant, in a very impossible way, with what people would say was his first child. But he knew differently because he was a man of honor. After some thought, he decided to do the honorable thing, as demanded by his culture, and break off the engagement. Being kind, though honorable man, he didn’t want to make a public display and wanted to keep everything “private”. But again, God interceded. In a dream, an angel commanded him to ignore the honor-based values taught to him by his culture and to do a more holy thing so that a greater good could be done.

Joseph may have been a man of honor, but he was also a man of faith. He accepted what God had commanded him to do and married the woman who would come to be known as the Mother of God.

In their small community, they would have been aware of the whisperings and gossip around them. Concerned with how it would affect the child he would raise, Joseph considered moving back with his family several days’ journey to the south, wanting to know what would be best for the child. The angel told him the child would be a savior and ruler in Israel, even God Himself. There was a scripture known to the faithful that said the Ruler and Shepherd of Israel would be born in Bethlehem. This scripture came as an answer to his prayer to know whether he should move his new family.

Joseph took that as a sign that he was the right man to make sure the prophecy would be fulfilled. He was from Bethlehem, and he had family there. Taking his young wife and soon-to-be-mother, he set out on a journey of faith. He was a man of faith and was doing what the angel had commanded him. He also did what he knew to be true from the scriptures. He knew it had to be this way.

Shortly after arriving at the house of relatives, his wife went into labor. With the women in Joseph’s extended family there to assist, Mary gave birth to the Son of God, the future Savior of not just Israel but of the whole Earth. Despite his relative’s generous accommodations, there was not enough room in their guest room for the young couple, a new baby, and the others staying there during Passover. Mary needed rest and could not sleep if Jesus was woken up every few minutes by the others in the room. To help Jesus sleep, they wrapped him tightly in some cloth and placed him outside in a disused stone watering trough for some animals. Not a very auspicious beginning for the King of Heaven, but it was at Passover in the spring, and the weather was pleasant.

Before long, they heard hushed talking coming from outside and went out to find a group of shepherds had entered the fenced-in yard by the house and were reverently observing the baby lying in the manger. The shepherds told them they were visited by a host of angels proclaiming a covenant of peace between the kingdoms of the earth and the Kingdom of God and that God would extend mercy to all people, even though they had sinned. They instantly went looking for the Savior of the World, and just as the angel had said, they found the child, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

On that night, something changed. A sequence of events began that will ultimately culminate with God fulfilling the covenant he made with all humanity. The gulf of sin and alienation between all of humanity and God has been bridged. And God, through his Son, offers eternal life to all those who are faithful and willing to take upon them the name of The Son. As Christians, we have taken His name upon us and faithfully await the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, where, as promised, we will dwell in peace.

 

I wish you all a very merry and pleasant Christmas Holiday. May the spirit of the season soften your hearts, and may love abound in the lives of both you and those you hold dear.

 

There’s also a tank ID – because this is VM

Identify the vehicle, nicknamed Lucypher, which belonged to the 6th ‘Dzieci Lwowskich’ [Children of Lwów] Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Brigade assigned to II Corps.

Instead of ammo, the tank carried gifts.

The man dressed up as St. Nicholas was officer cadet Edward Wojtczak. The town is Bibbiena in Tuscany. Polish soldiers decided to cheer up the war-weary locals, especially children, by arranging an appropriate meeting with St. Nicholas. Poles provided entertainment, food, and gifts.

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51 thoughts on “Nativity”

      1. To be fair, it’s an M5 Stuart Recce. Why M5? Sloped glacis plate, simplified construction, better armor value, more room inside. The M3 had a stepped glassis plate and was more cramped.

  2. With time difference it’s already evening on 24 December in Australia.

    The wrong sort of white Christmas for the last day or so. Thunderstorms with hail from 2” to the occasional 5” piece. Enough to look like snow for a while. Finally stopped at lunch time today. (should I be blaming climate change?). Supposed to be fine until late afternoon on Christmas Day.

    Best wishes for Christmas everyone.

    1. The old International Date Line gets in the way of posts like this one (and the next and possibly the one following) I hope that you have a great Christmas, RCC

      1. Thank you.

        Various family coming to our place for lunch. I’m doing roast pork etc. They are bringing dessert.

        My sister and sister in law have both won cooking competitions for their desserts. I can feel the calories just looking at them.

    2. We’re getting rain for Christmas here in Alachuacountystan, capital city of Gainesgrad. Good temperatures, below 70 American so it’s decent.

      Though the first time I saw snow in real life was Christmas Morning, in Satellite Beach, FL (below Cocoa Beach and the Cape). Little flurry thingies that slowly, gracefully threw themselves to a wet death on our picture window.

  3. How appropriate that God choose the shepherds to hear of Jesus’s coming through the angelic hosts. The great unwashed deplorable’s of their day. Living with their herds (have you ever smelled a sheep) protecting them from all matter of predators. Not exactly the upper crust. Gods commitment to all of us. Even the VM faithful!

    1. Given that they were in Bethlehem at Passover, they were likely the shepherds who tended the Temple’s sheep. As you say, they had a role to play at different levels. Merry Christmas FHubert.

      1. They had to inspect the sacrificial Lamb.
        Edersheim (a converted Jewish scholar) says this lends credence to a December birth:
        But as we pass from the sacred gloom of the cave out into the night, its sky all aglow with starry brightness, its loneliness is peopled, and its silence made vocal from heaven. There is nothing now to conceal, but much to reveal, though the manner of it would seem strangely incongruous to Jewish thinking. And yet Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and helpful. That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, [1 In the curious story of His birth, related in the Jer. Talmud (Ber. ii. 3), He is said to have been born in ‘the royal castle of Bethlehem;’ while in the parallel narrative in the Midr. on Lament. i. 16, ed. W. p. 64 b) the somewhat mysterious expression is used But we must keep in view the Rabbinic statement that, even if a castle falls down, it is still called a castle (Yalkut, vol. ii. p. 60 b).] was a settled conviction.
        Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder, ‘the tower of the flock.’ [a Targum Pseudo-Jon. on Gen. xxxv 21.] This Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheepground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah [b Shek. vii. 4.] leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices,
        ….
        It was, then, on that ‘wintry night’ of the 25th of December, [3 There is no adequate reason for questioning the historical accuracy of this date. The objections generally made rest on grounds, which seem to me historically untenable. The subject has been fully discussed in an article by Cassel in Herzog’s Real. Ency. xvii. pp. 588-594. But a curious piece of evidence comes to us from a Jewish source. In the addition to the Megillath Taanith (ed. Warsh. p. 20 a), the 9th Tebheth is marked as a fast day, and it is added, that the reason for this is not stated. Now, Jewish chronologists have fixed on that day as that of Christ’s birth, and it is remarkable that, between the years 500 and 816 A.D. the 25th of December fell no less than twelve times on the 9th Tebheth. If
        the 9th Tebheth, or 25th December, was regarded as the birthday of Christ, we can understand the concealment about it. Comp. Zunz, Ritus d. Synag. Gottesd. p. 126.] That shepherds watched the flocks destined for sacrificial services, in the very place consecrated by tradition as that where the Messiah was to be first revealed. Of a sudden came the long-delayed, unthought announcement. Heaven and earth seemed to mingle.

        The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, By Alfred Edersheim 1883

    2. One of the gospels has Jesus being born in a Shepherds’ cave, and carried to Bethlehem. All other gospels that deal with the Birth have him being born in Bethlehem.

      But, yeah, what an occurrence. Must have rung the world like a bell when He was born.

  4. Wonderful column today, Larry. Thank you for sharing this and Merry Christmas, one and all!

  5. Nativity- No argument from me, makes the combined Scripture accounts more real, using everyday language and fill-in details that help bring to life the historical event that began the New Covenant. In your account – what a preacher is tasked – people can better picture the times and relate, therefore “own”. Well done.

    Have a wonderful break from the fray with family enjoying this season and recharge the spiritual batteries…plus dessert items, lots of dessert items. Why not. And it snowed last night so a White Christmas is on the docket in our neck of the woods…no complaints.

    Merry Christmas to all, enjoy and God Bless.

    1. Snow on the ground always makes it feel more like Christmas. I hope you can put your feet up near the fire for the next few days and take it easy. Merry Christmas.

      1. take it easy, my dad’s exact words to me on occasion. Just figured out why he’d say that. Fire, feet up…that’s the program…plus desserts and a few friends later. Them: What should we bring? Me: A dessert item.

        Can you sense the one-track theme?

        Tomorrow – for once – zero plans, maybe a snowshoe.

        Ps. Missed a comma, should be “…away from the fray, with family…”, heh.
        Pss. These pecan pie bites are amazing. (testing for later)

  8. We wish you a merry Christmas,
    We wish you a merry Christmas,
    We wish you a merry Christmas,
    And a happy New Year!
    Glad tidings we bring to you and your kin,
    Glad tidings of Christmas and a happy New Year!

    To accompany O Come O Come Emmanuel, here is While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t9Oy3sCa8

  10. A Blessed and Merry Christmas to the blog keeper and readers from wet Central Texas where we received an inch of much needed rain early this morning..

  11. LL, thank you for the post today and all of your other posts throughout the year. At the end of the day this site is a message of hope. Remembering what it is all about, Merry Christmas to you and yours and Merry Christmas to everyone who stops by here.

    No white Christmas this year unless the freezing fog condenses into a deep layer of frost on the ground, sigh.

    1. Chalk it up to global warming – Here’s dreaming of a warm Christmas for you. Merry Christmas.

  12. While reading the story I was wondering if there was going to be a ‘leap of joy’ reference – an appropriate response for all generations. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

  13. St. Nick once slapped a guy for heresy, but I never heard of him resorting to armor!
    Merry Christmas to you, your family and your readers, Larry!
    Thank you for recounting the nativity.

    1. I hope your Christmas celebration is joyous and the elf you eat is served with BBQ sauce.

  14. Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful family from a Navy vet and long time arborist from behind enemy lines in the northeast. No real snow in the mtns. this Christmas.

  17. Merry Christmas, everyone!

    Always nice to have a place to visit where things still make sense.

    – Kle.

  18. A blessed Christmas to you, LL, and all readers of this blog.

    I’ve been taken aback by how little Christ remains in modern-day Christmas in the Big Apple: even the name is now all but abolished from the festivities. Aside from a single heroic private holdout on one Brooklyn street, the only nativity scenes to be found in New York City are hidden away in Churches.

  20. Merry Christmas Larry and a great 2024. And of course, the same to all of the VM readers and commentators.

    As to the story, I always found the three wise men and the gifts they brought to be an interesting part of the story.

    1. Very useful for the Escape To Egypt in one year, just ahead of Holy Innocents’ Day, Dec 28th, the loot was.

  21. LL, I’m rather concerned.

    Of course the RHSM role is multifaceted but I wasn’t aware it encompassed Chaplain. Now I know.

    EXCELLENT homily.

  22. Merry Christmas. Yes, a Passover time birth makes more sense when you consider the Shepards in the field. When Roman era Christians were setting dates for feast days they tended to work around Roman feasts to mask their celebration. Since Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring eqquinix (Roman rite) aside with often coinciding with Jewish Passover the Roman’s and the pagan celts had fertility rites around that full moon and tended to be distracted. Similarly both groups had feasts around the winter solstice and tended to be distracted by partying and since Easter already filled the spring slot it was convenient to put Christmas in the winter slot! Some other customs like the advent wreath may have developed around Germanic and Norse customs by missionaries using their practices around lighted hoops that were entreating the sun’s dimming as it approached winter solstice to end.

  23. Between the Good Reverend LSP and our military chaplain LL, we get quite a round religious education here.

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