Happy birthday Jesus

'Tis indeed the season to be jolly, as today is Jesus' 2008th birthday. Today we are reminded of where God began His redemptive work of His new covenant. We have so much to be thankful to God for, and I pray you will feel a fresh amazement about the truth that God saves people like us. Just remember to say a prayer for those today who do not have a warm home, nice presents and a cooked dinner.

There are some things about the Christmas story that I don't yet understand, and I hope I do not sound stupid. But what exactly were the shepherds for? And those carols that talk about snow - was there snow in Bethlehem; was there not a clear sky for the wise men to see the star?

Another thing that struck me the other day during the carol service is the line; no room in the inn; in a manger he lay. Aside from the David healy connotations, I find this sentiment typical of our giving and good works for the Lord. We claim there is no room in the inn, and so we give him not even second best in the form of a manger. How often have we given begrudgingly, or made a contribution but kept something back for ourselves (we had better be glad that God doesn't treat us all as Ananias and Sapphira!). We feel good about ourselves for the every so often random act of kindness we do do.

When Christians talk about Christmas, they usually mention how far away it is from it's original meaning. A quick google search for 'Christmas' revealed that the first website found which was remotely close to the real Christmas story was found half way down page 4 coming in the form of Christian Cyberspace! Even the image search produced few and far between God related images. So in light of this, I just want to remind myself of how amazing it actually is that Christ came from the power of heaven, to become a baby in a sinful world to be slain for our sins.