May your Christmas celebrations quicken your assurance that you are in God’s Everlasting embrace. With that knowledge, may you experience peace, hope, comfort, and abiding love.
As the Holy Child of Bethlehem is born in our hearts anew, God is preparing us to fulfil His greatest desire to change our present world for His glory.
Wishing you all a blessed Christmas, And for the New Year, hands firmly held by the Hands of God.
Frank and Vera Curtis
The following meditation is a personal (recently revised) attempt to convey the timelessness of the Christmas Event.
THE CARPENTER
Suggested Scripture Reading: Luke 2: 1 – 20
Scripture Emphasis: Luke 2:7
“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”
The setting for the story is the town of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. The time is the first Christmas Eve.
Everywhere, crowds gather to discuss the latest happenings on everyone’s mind! The royal decree from Emperor Caesar Augustus, levies taxation on all the world. That edict touched everyone, the young, the elderly, the born, and the yet unborn, from every corner of the known world. Indeed, the hopes and fears of all the years are mingling unavoidably in Bethlehem’s crowded streets tonight! The atmosphere was heavily ladened with all the latest gossip.
” Well, have you heard the latest news?” one displaced migrant started:
” Someone told me that a woman who just arrived in town is about to give birth, but she can find no shelter anywhere in town.” “Well, I say, too bad.” snorted another, “but can you imagine taking a chance like that? Good enough for everyone who takes chances like that! Even when I arrived here early this morning, a notice posted at Bethlehem Inn read,” No Use Knocking! There Is NO ROOM IN The INN”. ” I say blame the corrupted government for all this,” offered another bystander, ” scores of us could find no place to lay our heads. The wild and starry sky will be the only ceiling many of us will know for as long as this thieving scheme lasts: and nobody cares”. And so, the various testy opinions continue.
However, most of the crowd were not interested in hearing about someone else’s plight, enough for each to think of his own.
But such is the prevailing tone on Bethlehem’s streets tonight. Everyone is too earthbound by personal concerns to permit the entry of thoughts about God, and angels, and the long-awaited Messiah. So instead, this night is more suited for discussions of greed, betrayal, and idle dreams about warrior kings and corrupted schemes.
Aside from the uproar of the crowded streets, many of the town’s residents settle down for their usual night of peaceful rest. Gradually, stars become more visible in the darkening world, as from the windows of one cottage after another, lights disappear.
But, one exception stands out distinctively.
A single light shines in the home of one, Zachariah Ben Ezra, known among the town’s citizenry as the carpenter. The light announces that Zachariah’s devoted and dearly beloved wife, Rachael, continues her untiring vigil. For a fortnight, Rachael and her sons have been waiting to hear the footfall of the angel of death! They expect that this will, most likely, be the night!
Earlier today, the Family gathered around Zachariah’s bed at his bidding. Silence falls, as the older man, summoning his resources of failing strength, speaks:
“Before the chariots of the morning ride on the eastern rim of the world, I shall go to the God Of our Fathers. Therefore, listen well, and always honour our Faithful God, just as I sought to do, to this present hour.
There will be many trials and heart-wrenching experiences for all of you. However, be certain; God will always come through, and His Holy purpose will prevail.
Along with faith and trust in God, I leave you, my sons, the tools of my carpenter’s trade. Twenty-three years, six months and, five days ago this very night, I used my carpenter’s tools for the last time! The memory of that night still gives me the pain to recall.
I was finishing my last shift at the stable at Bethlehem’s Inn. The very next morning, I was to begin a new job. I was engaged to be the carpenter in charge of building our Holy Temple. That was quite an honour, a prestigious position. Indeed, it was quite a promotion from constructing a manger in the stable at Bethlehem’s Inn to creating ‘The Holy of Holies’ in the Sacred Temple. For me, it was the dream of a lifetime. And It was on the verge of becoming my reality!
Suddenly, hopes and dreams ground to a torturous halt! My right arm became severed from my body. Consequently, it was several days later before I realized just what this accident meant for me! I must admit to you, I cried! But through it all, I could not determine whether the tears were my own or God’s! Of one thing, I remain certain: I was never alone! Not then! Not now, Not never will I be! My hope in this life was to accomplish something good for God, Who has done so much for me! But I have learned that it is not my feeble hold on God that counts; instead, it is His powerful hold on me! Therefore, I now place this broken instrument in God’s hands, and I know that the touch of His hand will produce a tune befitting for the courts of Heaven!”
Death lingered for Zacharias. It was about midnight when a friend of many years hastened to Zacharius’ bedside. Ecstatic with excitement, he stoops to whisper into Zacharius’ ear, “Zacharius, my dear friend, Your Friend, Israel’s Messiah has come! He is lying in your manger bed in Bethlehem’s stable! ”
Prayer To Follow This Meditation
O glorious Light of Heaven,
Shine upon the pathway that will bring us to the manger of Bethlehem at this Christmas time.
Kneeling there before the Light Of The World, who arrives again this night into our midst, fix in us reflectors that we may show by word and deed the message of this Season, ‘Emmanuel, God is with us.’ Fix in us, though humble, a dwelling place so that we may prove ourselves to be ambassadors of Thy Peace on earth. So may we add to the legend of how the beasts of the field offer all they had to honor the Baby. Even now, He lies helpless in our crowded world, waiting for humble hearts to become His dwelling place.
O Light of Heaven, send Your effulgent rays into the far reaches of our world, so that people of all nations, coming to its rising, will constitute One Family for the glory of God! Amen.
Hymn: O Holy Night