IN THE FIELDS NEAR BETHLEHEM

                        

                                                    

      I had a dream a while ago.

I saw myself walking down a pasture strewn with rocks, rocks with jagged edges and sharp corners: sheep were grazing between those rocks and I was wondering why I was there.

    A man came walking towards me, dressed in a cloak and wearing a headdress.

When he came closer, he said to me: “Shalom to you stranger.”

I returned his greeting and then he asked: “Are you looking for someone or something”? When he asked this, I knew why I was there.

      “I am looking for the shepherds to whom an angel made the announcement that the saviour of your nation was born.” I said.

“My name is Eli, and I am one of those shepherds.”

“Please, tell me how you felt when this angel suddenly appeared?” I asked.

He hesitated for a moment and then said that this experience was an extra-ordinary ending to an ordinary day.

“Do you know, stranger, what an ordinary day of shepherding sheep looks like”? he asked.

I admitted that I did not.

“Then let me explain what we normally do.

Look at that cave besides us; we use it as a sheepfold.

Since the opening to it is quite wide, we have built a low wall of rocks in front of it otherwise the sheep keep on walking out. A small opening in this wall acts as a gate for the sheep to go in and out.

In the morning, the sheep go out to graze freely among the rocks.

If one of them wanders away too far we use a leather strap as a sling, put a small stone at the end of it, swing the strap around a few times, let go of the stone and when the stone hits the sheep or the ground near it, the startled sheep runs toward the flock again.

See the short heavy stick I have in my hand? We use it to chase the wild animals away when they want to attack the sheep or us.

That long stick with the crook at the top we mostly use as a walking stick and also for leading the flock.

At the end of the day, we lead the sheep to the fold again and one by one, they go through the gate. We know how many sheep there should be so we count them when they enter. If they are not all there, we go and look for them until we find them and bring them back.

Sometimes one of them goes too far away and did not see the flock return or heard us call and sometimes one of them is hurt.

       The evening you are asking about the flock was inside the fold. We sat outside and talked about the Roman occupiers of our country who had ordered everyone to go to the town where their ancestors came from. We talked also about our desire to be a free nation again.

For many years already the rabbis had taught us that one-day a Savior would come. He would be a descendent of King David.

    This king David governed many years ago. Before God chose him to be a king he was a shepherd and a wonderful poet.

In one of his poems he realized that he himself had a shepherd also and that this shepherd did for him what he did for his sheep.

                         The highlights in this poem are:

                                The Lord is my shepherd,

                                  I shall not be in want

                He makes me lie down in green pastures,

                    He leads me beside quiet waters,

          (and the conclusion for him, being the Lord’s sheep)

                          

   Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

                                 I will fear no evil,

                               For you are with me;

                               all the days of my life,

             and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

                                     forever.

      It was time to go to sleep and we decided that Moshe, one of the other shepherds, was going to do the first watch.

Just when we were going to lie down a brilliant light suddenly surrounded us and in that light stood an angel. He realized that we were terrified and told us not to be afraid because he had good news for us, not for us only but for all people.

He told us that in the town of David, Bethlehem, a Savior had been born. We would recognize Him by being wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

When the angel had finished his message a choir of angels appeared, they praised God by saying:

                             Glory to God in the highest,

                             And on earth peace to men on

                             whom his favor rests.

      We hurried to Bethlehem to see our Savior.

The only place where there would be a manger is in the inn”.

“Do you know, stranger, the layout of an inn in this country?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

On the ground floor of an inn are only stables.

After the travelers have watered their animals at the outside watering troughs they stable their animals there.

Some travelers have donkeys, some have camels, and all are tied down in front of mangers in which food for them is provided.

Above the stables is a floor with a number of small rooms in which the travelers sleep.

When this couple arrived there were no more rooms available; they had to be satisfied with an empty space in the stable area.

    We found the place where the parents were staying and the baby in the manger.

       We told the parents and others, the message the angel had given us. When we returned to our flocks, we glorified and praised God for all the things we had heard and seen.

You know, stranger, what struck me in the announcement made by the angel, he said that this Savior was for all people, not only for our nation.”

     I did not have a chance to say thank you to Eli for sharing this experience with me, for just then I woke up.

ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?

            “Henry, are you ready for Christmas?” asked Pete

“Not quite, Pete, but I will be ready in time, though.”

Pete continued: “Do you know who was first in getting ready for Christmas?”

“Someone in the office or in the shop maybe?”

 “No, it was none of them. It was God who was first.”

Henry listened quietly as Pete went on to explain that God began his preparations for Christmas shortly after Adam and Eve had disobeyed the command: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden...”

At that time God spoke to the serpent, Satan, who had enticed Adam and Eve to disobey his command: “...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head...”

That was when God promised the coming of the “he”.

Satan tried everything to prevent this coming. He caused mankind to be so evil that God decided he had to destroy it. Except for a select few, God did destroy all of them; that was the time of “The Flood”. The “Tower of Babel” was another of Satan’s efforts; communications confusion was the result of it.

God chose Abraham so that through his posterity this “he” would appear.

Abraham’s descendants, God’s chosen people, became slaves to the Egyptians for more than four hundred years but under the leadership of Moses God liberated them.

Satan caused the “chosen people” not to be always faithful in their worship of God.

Shortly after they had left Egypt he succeeded in influencing them to build a “golden calf” and worship it. After they had entered the Promised Land they several times worshiped the idols of neighboring countries, but when they repented God forgave them. Their special “chosen” relationship with God came from the promise that “he” would be a descendant of Abraham.

 “Weren’t they part of other empires a few times?” Henry asked.

“Yes, they were. When they were a part of the Roman Empire God decided that it was time for this “he” to be born.  His mother, as well as his “adoptive father“, had been told to give him the name Jesus. I am sure, Henry, that you know that the name Jesus means, “the Lord saves” and that Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua.”

“By the way, Henry since we’re discussing names, the addition of Christ to Jesus’ name is Greek for “the Anointed One” which is the equivalent for the Hebrew word Messiah. But let’s get back to Christmas”.

Pete continued by recounting that when Jesus was born there was no great celebration, a few shepherds came visiting, a few wise men came by, no one else.

 “How did we come to celebrate Christmas the way we do now?” asked Henry.

 Pete explained that different beginnings and reasons for this celebration are recorded. Many agree that it was in the fourth century that the church tried to clean up a celebration that had existed already for many years. Saturnalia, the festival in honor of the Roman god Saturn, the god of agriculture, had become a festival of drunkenness and utter debauchery. Many years earlier the Roman Senate had forbidden the celebration of Saturnalia, without much success though. By the 4^th century the Christian church wanted to put some Christian spiritual content into the pagan festival. The church’s efforts were not a complete success either, some pagan symbols crept in, the Yule log is one example, the mistletoe another.

Other traditions were added also: Christmas trees, Christmas cards just to name a few and let’s not forget Santa Claus. These distractions Pete explained interfere with the commemoration of the arrival of the “he”; the birth of Jesus, and his ordained purpose to “crush Satan’s head”.

The Christmas symbols, said Pete, have made the real reason for our celebration secondary. Satan succeeds in his distraction from God’s word if our Christmas celebration is limited to good eating, drinking and giving presents. We even justify our gift giving by pretending that we are copying the bringing of gifts by the Wise Men. Satan likes everything about Christmas except commemorating the birth of Jesus. Satan knows that Jesus is the “he” who has come to “crush his head”.

Pete went on to explain that Satan knows that those who accept the fact that Jesus lived, died and rose again, and did so for them, have a restored relationship with God and that Satan has lost them. Every Christmas, Henry, I am reminded of the fact that Jesus went back to heaven after Easter and that when he left the angels made the statement that “he” will return again. This time, however, as our judge and as it says in the book of Revelation: “...every eye will see him...” not just a few selected people, no, “everyone”.

“Henry, are we preparing for that Christmas? The very last one! If not give it some thought. The bible says it might be any day. Let’s keep in mind that today this coming is already a day closer then it was yesterday and tomorrow it is closer yet.”

You’re right Pete, said Henry thoughtfully; God was the first to prepare the world for Christmas, now we have to be prepared for Jesus return.