Bethlehem: Ground Zero

The days pass, one by one.  We put up trees.  We are "out and about."  We go to concerts - of grandchildren, of professional choruses.  More and more we hear the words - of the great story.  The hymns and anthems at church sing them to us.

They did to us, at two services of "Lessons and Carols," and were enchanting.  The gifted staff read the winsome and mighty words, then gave brief and penetrating words of interpretation and explanation.  Then a brief, pointed, penetrating prayer.  Wonderful anthems from the Chorale, and the Chamber Singers, and the children's choir put it all to music.

And so, more and more, carols of Christmas help us look up, and look in, and see in our hearts again the mystical characters, and the wondrous places of this seeking season.

We see Gabriel, from Heaven, addressing the young Mary: "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and you will bear a child, a son, whom you will call Jesus."  Joseph, too, is addressed by a messenger, and plays his part.

Far away, in eastern courts, astrologers who study the heavens to understand what is going on in heaven, intended for the world, became aware of a new and unfamiliar star in the sky.  It calls them to follow, to saddle up and journey out, to see and understand.

And the focal point, the place of God's invasion of earth, was a tiny town just outside Jerusalem, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.  It was no big city, no great metropolis, albeit by history and by prophesy, "King David's Royal City," but it was ground zero for God's great movement of hope, far more than the twin towers of Manhattan Island were the focal point of the Devil's intended destruction of and disintegration of the world's hope beyond itself.

Amazing how God chooses unlikely places, and unlikely people to be His place, and DO HIS WORK in this world.

Nazareth would follow on the list of unlikely places.  And Joseph and Mary and their first born son would be the almost unbelievable instruments of this mystical invasion.

What is He using now, as the world senses the coming of the "Second Advent" in these "end times?"

Can we play the part?  It is a call to the Church and to every individual believer, who loves Jesus, and is ready to serve Him with a new will, and commitment, and courage.