Merry Christmas

I don't like the way that Christmas has evolved into the politically correct "holiday season". I was talking to a cashier at Target last week. She said that that particular store did not play Christmas music because one employee objected. She said that this employee did not object to taking the day off, though! How hypocritical!
Today is the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus. By historical accounts, Mary was a teenager when she became pregnant. She was engaged to marry Joseph, a much older man (Maybe in his mid twenties). Because she was pregnant before the marriage, Joseph had every right to accuse Mary of adultery. He could have demanded that she be stoned to death. How frightening it must have been for Mary to tell him about this baby she was to deliver. But Joseph followed God's perfect plan and supported Mary throughout the pregnancy. They were married and had other children. In the scriptures, mention is made of Joseph's brothers.
How difficult it must have been to be so close to the delivery of her child yet travel such a distance to Bethlehem. In the last days of my pregnancies, it was hard enough for me to drive to the grocery store! How frustrating it must have been for Joseph to be unable to find a place for his very pregnant wife to rest. God provided a place for them. I like to think of the innkeeper as a kind man, one who saw a desperate need and did what he could to help.
I've heard that women don't remember everything about their labor/delivery experiences. I beg to differ! I remember every minute detail of each of mine, two decades after the fact! I remember that, with Chris, I was furious with Eve. It was her fault that I was so miserable! If she had just done what God told her to do, I wouldn't be in so much pain! There is nothing in the scriptures about Mary's labor. I believe that, in His mercy, God allowed her a brief labor and an easy delivery. Here was this girl, laboring in a barn, with her husband and maybe a midwife to help and comfort her. "And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger". Her baby boy was wrapped in rags and placed on clean straw in the animals' feeding tray. I can imagine her joy at hearing her baby's first cry and her wonder at the miracle of ten little fingers and toes. On this night of nights, Mary did what all new mothers do, she praised God for the blessing of this healthy baby boy, God's gift to humanity. Two thousand years later, we still spend this day praising God for the first Christmas gift, a tiny baby sent to save us from our sins.
Merry Christmas to one and all and God's blessings for a very happy 2009.