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The Story of Christmas
by Jerry Ousley As she thought about the events of the past several months it seemed a dream and, in a way, a blur. It had almost cost her marriage to the man she loved so dearly. She recalled that day when the angel had appeared to her, speaking words that were beyond human imagination. For starters, not even a prophet, let alone an angel had been seen or heard of in recorded history for at least 400 years. This Heavenly being had told her that she had been graced to give birth to the Promised One. This had been the secret hope of every girl in her country. As a young teen she had dreamed what it would be like to be the mother of this great Expected One. It would be a life of luxury being the mother of a king. And the angel was telling her that she was the chosen girl. But it had not been the life of luxury she had dreamed about. On the contrary, it had been a time of frowns and being shunned because she was expecting a child and had not been with her husband to be. He had almost broken off their engagement for this very reason, but then changed his mind because of a dream he felt was from God. They were married and he had faithfully stood by her side as she was treated like a prostitute. Then, in the final days of her pregnancy had come the new ruling from the Roman officials that her husband must travel to the city of his birth for registration that would bring a new tax upon them from the emperor. It had not been an easy trip and quite honestly, may have helped to bring her labor on after they had finally found a place to stay. The little town was overflowing with people by the time they had arrived and not an inn in town had a room available. It seemed they were going to have to sleep in the streets and already feeling pain she knew this would not provide a very modest place to bring this Promised King into the world. Finally however, one of the inn-keepers had offered to let them stay in his stable. The little cave behind the inn was humbling but quite comfortable. There she gave birth to her firstborn son. She and her husband had just gotten through the ordeal and had the newborn wrapped up and settled in when a group of shepherds had shown up telling a story of angels appearing in the sky and announcing the birth of this child. It may not have seemed like a good place for a king to be born but they certainly got royal treatment from this group of men who smelled heavily of sheep. It had been an exciting but tiring day and night. But she thought deeply about these things and knew that even though they were poor their lives were now rich and blessed because of this wonderful male child lying in the manger before them. Though he lay in a feeding trough for the cattle and donkeys surely one day he would feed multitudes. Yes it had been more than interesting because everything the angel had said had come true so far. Surely the rest would happen and when it did all nations of the Earth would be blessed in Him. (Luke 1 2) Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |