Abigail's Christmas Story
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Good evening- I am Abigail and
I thank you for inviting me to your Christmas gathering. I greet you with the wonderful words found in
Jeremiah 29:11:
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" For I
know the thought that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Yes - God has a plan and a future and
a hope for each of us - as well as for us corporately…as a group of believers
in a local congregation!
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I look around your beautiful
church and sense the history of this place - the people that built and founded
this work for God in your area so many years ago. You can feel the sweet spirit of devotion and
awe and peace in this place…
I know - I am good at sensing the aura
of a place…I always have been. Maybe it
comes from years of running our inn in Bethlehem. My husband and I, that is…spent our lives
reading people and situations and applying ourselves to turn them into
pleasantness and profit for all concerned.
I know what to expect in certain
places with certain people.
You know what I mean, don't you?
In the market place I know that old
friends become wary hagglers over the price of fish and the measure of a bolt
of weave from Syria. I know the smells
of the place - hot with needs and hurrying bodies…the noise and laughter and
scurrying.
I know what to expect in the market
place.
I know what the stable holds for me
when I go out to tend the animals - get some eggs or milk or feed the little
beasties. The warm, earthy smell -
pungent with life and holding peeks of furry cuteness.
I have long been drawn to the
holiness, awe and inspiration of a trip to the Temple - whether in the women’s
court of the great Temple in Jerusalem on our yearly journey to Passover - or
gathered around our local Rabbi at home in Bethlehem…I know what I will sense -
what I will find when I get there. The
people at their best outwardly - their clothes pressed and frocked out - the
sense of history and mystery in the presence of the One God…I know what to
expect there. The crying out in repentance of the sinner rebuked by the elders
- the sing song of the holy Word of God spoken by the priests - the incense and
majesty and hope and glory of worship by the chosen people for their Sovereign
Lord and King. Yaweh - King of the
Universe…
I have long known what to expect in
our home with my husband, Levi and the children bustling about my feet -
growing up with their heartaches and joys and temper tantrums and the
love. O the love that a good man brings
to his family…the joy of children and grandchildren - beautiful babies laid in
the arms of doting mothers and proud papas…I know what will happen when I walk
down the steps and across the hall into our business - our inn (called the
Wanderers' Rest by Levi's fathers father).
The inn we have kept these 27 years.
I know to expect a variety of weary travelers, visiting relatives, and
tradesmen. And some coming from, who
knows where - going to, they know not where.
The rowdy regulars for a hot meal and some mulled wine. The shepherds - my husband’s unruly brothers
and cousins from the country - messing up my clean floors and shouting and
laughing and singing late into the night…
I have learned how to handle them all
- all the people - all the ever-changing scenes and situations…to flow from the
daily nitty-gritty, to the give and take of barter, to the quiet meditation of
things eternal. And back again.
Down through the years, with my share
of hopes and dreams all laid before my God with thanks. Accepting from His
hand, the ordinariness of the days He gives me to live out before Him.
But
I did not know what to make of that
one starry night - so long ago
and yet it is seems but yesterday.
You know the night I speak of - you
are gathered here to celebrate it,
same as me!
But you know the whole story - you know Jesus' legend from beginning to end…the way
He turned everything upside down with His practice and teaching of the Right
Side Up Kingdom - the Kingdom of God, His Father.
But back then - we knew nothing.
O - the prophesies we knew. And thought the Lord had been silent - so
terribly silent - for hundreds of years then…we recounted the promises to each
other. The priests did - sure - it was
their job - and pompous and proud they were to tell it in their fancy robes and
tall miters on their heads…parading around with tales of the coming of the
great king who would one day lead Israel out of the hand of the Romans and into
the Day of their own glory…
But also kowtowing to those very
Romans - in their private conversations…making their compromises of peace so
they could retain some semblance of their own earthly power.
But we - the plain folk – recited
those prophecies over and over to ourselves:
the prophesies that were our promises. There was not a baby boy born to
a local ruler, prominent tradesman or rabbi that the midwife did not hold the
child up and ask - could this be the One? Could this be our Messiah?
And we in Bethlehem - little sweet
Bethlehem - the city of the House of God…we have our local holy ones. There was
old Simeon – who was told by God's Holy Spirit that he would not taste of death
until he saw with his own eyes the “Consolation of Israel” - the Lord's
Christ.
And our dear Anna - widowed when still
a young thing - now in her nineties - serving in the Temple night and day with
prayers and fasting…she was there to behold the little One who was given on
that precious night.
But though we rehearsed the promise
and though we had those among us who
were waiting patiently for His coming,
still how could we understand the way
of it when He appeared there in our midst?
I was not at the door when Joseph
stepped in and asked my husband for a room. He was desperate to bring his
beloved Mary in out of the weather, after his long journey with her from
Nazareth. But we were flowing over
already! We had some paying just to sleep at the tables when our other guests
had gone up to their rooms. Whole families had traveled to their hometown of
Bethlehem for the census that Rome required of Israel for tax purposes. As though they had not squeezed the life out
of us before that!
There was no room for them - you know
that…
but my Levi is a wise and
compassionate man. Instead of sending
the very pregnant Mary back into the streets to search for a place to lay
down…he took Joseph and helped him make a place in our stable - carved out of
the rock in the side of the hill behind our Inn.
Levi told me in passing that there was
a man & his wife staying out in the stable - and had me send some of our
serving girls out with a bit of bread and cheese - some clean water to slake
their thirst and wash a bit of the road away.
But it was not until Sharon came
running in breathless – asking for clean cloths and more water and her eyes
wide with wonder that I understood that a babe had come into the world on that
busy night.
I finished with the last of the
cleaning up - handing out blankets to those slumped over the tables. I took
myself out into the yard for a stretch and to visit the new parents and see
that there were enough sticks of wood to keep them warm for the night…
But I was not prepared for what I
found out there in the dark.
First off
it wasn't all that dark…
up over my head sparkled the most
extraordinary sight I had seen - a star so bright and golden that it seemed it
would fall down on my head and end us all!
It looked as though it was almost day - and outshone the moon!!!
As I stood with my mouth hung open, I
was stirred to action by the running and jumping about of men near the door to
the stable. They appeared to be
shepherds by their clothing
and by their smell, if you will excuse
me…
but their manner was not at all what I
knew to expect from shepherds, young or old.
They were jabbering on and on about miracles and angels and singing - of
God and man and peace on earth…
they were either laying out full on
their faces there before our little cave - or wringing their hands and jumping
about - running back out into the
streets and shouting things about the Messiah having come to Israel at long
last.
What were they saying? I saw my husband walk past me as though in a
dream - our serving girls pulling him forward - pushing him into the soft glow
that came from the manger.
I seemed to glide forward - not of my
own will - but as though I was pulled along like a child on a cart. And what was this that I was sensing? What
was this atmosphere that smote my heart and mind and eyes as I drew near and
focused on the scene inside our stable?
The father - this Joseph - stood
gazing down on the child - but not as a new father. You know: proud and nervous
and hopeful and scared…that is what I should have seen on his face. But it was not.
What I beheld was the look I had seen
when a slave had paid off his debt - and the ring was taken from his ear - and
some coins were put into his hand. And
his once-master proclaimed him a free man!
Yes - it was just like that look.
Amazed - joyous - Free!
And the little Mary…as I saw her above
the backs of the prostrate shepherds and my now-kneeling husband and
maids. I saw her - not as a new mother
appears (had I not seen hundreds in my time?): not weary and smiling and doting
in motherly love…that was there a bit - but overshadowed by a look I have only
witnessed in those lost in meditation and prayer and praise.
Yes!
That was it!
There in the stable, surrounding that
humble manger - was the aura of the Shekinah glory of God witnessed only at
high and holy days in Jerusalem. What we
have recorded in our holy book when God would come down and sit between the
cherubim on the holy of holies…
That is what I witnessed that long ago
night in Bethlehem, as I gazed down for the first time at Jesus.
And though I followed years later, the
news of his doings in Nazareth and Jerusalem and all of Galilee…Yes - I heard
of his acts - his followers leaving all, his miracles and healings and the
teaching - as though He wrote the very Words He quoted from the scriptures. And
His death. How could it be?
His resurrection – with what wonder
did we greet that news? The truth of His coming again – we held it to our
hearts. Though I heard all of that, yet
I was never able to shake the feeling that was born in my heart that wonderful,
mysterious night.
The feeling that now I was whole
- that now life had truly begun - that questions I didn't know I was asking
were all answered. A sense of peace so
deep there is no words for it. And a
thankfulness that has caused me to come - like all people down through the
centuries have come - like you yourself have come tonight - and bow before the
Christ child and stretch out empty hands and full hearts - and offer him the
only gift He has ever desired.
May God unite us all tonight and
enable us to give to Jesus freely what His precious heart desires.
