What Really Happened in Bethlehem--by Linden Malki

Joseph needed to go to Bethlehem--not his choice, but the decree of Caesar. He and his betrothed, pregnant Mary, had to be ready to deal with whatever happened next.  As it turned out, there was no lodging available, and a kind person loaned them a stable for the birth of the most important baby of all.

King Herod, heard and was afraid. This was not surprising; he was king because of who he knew in Rome, but he was one of those people who was appeared strong, but showed his lack of confidence by killing a fair number of his family, not to mention anyone else who saw through his bluster. In this case, Persian astrologers who saw in the sky a phenomenon that they read as someone signficant being born in Judea. Herod's response was to kill, just as a generation later, the Jewish puppet establishment responded to the same someone, now grown to adulthood and acting in ways that they saw as a threat, by killing him. We know what happened next----

In our day, there is a lot of talk everywhere, especially shows of selfishness and fear. Too many people are afraid that they can only get what they want at the expense of someone else. This is one sign of people losing sight of God, who tells us that we shouldn't worry about what we think we are losing, because He is ready and willing to give us what we truly need if we are willing to give up what we think we need.  And what we think we need doesn't get us where we really want to be; too much of the world around us is grabbing more and more of what they're afraid to lose, but in the process they lose what they don't even realize they really need. Too many people think they need to grab what they want from other people because they are afraid of their own shadows--the dark sides of what they are convinced they can't get along without. Too many people don't even know what life could be for them if they are willing to look beyond stuff and attention and power and more stuff.

This is what really happened in that stable in Bethlehem--beyond the animals and the straw; the kings and priests. C.S. Lewis put it like this: "The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you

have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in."
(CS Lewis: "Mere Christianity")