Real Christmas

Have you ever thought about what the Christmas story would have sounded like if it had happened in our lifetime? Last night while sitting through the Christmas Eve service at our church, I couldn't help but think of what everything would have looked like had Jesus been born here.

Allow me to paint you a picture...

It's December 24, and it's raining. A young man with his extremely pregnant wife slowly pull into a gas station in their ancient Honda with 30 million miles on it. As the husband turns off the car, it rattles and sighs. He turns to his wife who looks exhausted and tells her that he will be right back.

He climbs out of the car and swings the door shut quietly. He puts one of their last 5 dollar bills into the tank then slowly sinks back into the car.

They are on their way to Stockton. They know no one and have no reservations. Hoping that he can find a place for them to stay, Joseph begins to drive again through the rain. As he drives he thinks about how he will begin to pay for his new son that is expected to be born very soon. His wife has fallen asleep, and leaning over her gently brushed the hair off her flushed face.

Pulling into Stockton a few minutes before midnight, Joseph scans the sides of the road for a place to stay. He spots a Motel 8 and pulls into the parking lot. He jogs up to the information desk only to find out that they have no rooms open. Joseph climbed back into the car only to hear his wife Mary urgently whispering his name.

"Joseph, the baby is coming; I need to find a place to lay down."

Pulling out of the parking lot, Joseph drives desperately looking for somewhere to stay. He sees a vacancy sign and quickly pulls into the dark parking lot. The motel is small and rundown looking, but it was dry inside as Joseph carried the panting Mary into their closet sized room. The rain continues to pound against the window while Mary progresses further into labor. In the wee hours of the morning after several hours of hard work, the frail first cry of a newborn baby pierces the stillness.

Joseph proudly hands the son to his mother and goes to wash his hands. He is standing in the doorway of the bathroom when he hears a knock on their door. Opening it, he sees two homeless men, soaked to the bone, obviously wanting something.

"Can I help you?" Joseph asked.

"We heard through some angels that the Christ was to be born tonight in Stockton, and so we came to find Him to worship Him."

Joseph eyed the men carefully and stepped back to let them into the small room. As soon as the men saw the infant, they dropped to their knees and bowed low before Him.

After hours of talking to Mary and Joseph, the homeless guys stood up, still overcome by wonder, and hurried out into the street telling everyone they came in contact with what had happened.

In the morning Joseph payed the woman at the desk and carried Mary out to their car. Their house was only a few hours away. The car crawled along over the hills. When they reached the house, Joseph ran inside to prepare a warm spot in their bed for Mary and the baby.

Joseph had to find a job in the area as a carpenter to fund his new family. For the next two years he worked, and no one ever knew about the child. One day while he was working in his wood shop, Joseph looked up and found himself standing face to face with the president of the United States.
Dropping his hammer, he greeted the president.

"What can I do for you Sir?"

"I have come to see the King. Would you please take me to Him?"

Joseph led the president into the house where His mother was helping Him wash His hands. The boy was handsome and ruddy, tall for his age and had a distinctive twinkle in His eyes.

The president walked forward toward the small boy until he was very close. Then he knelt down and worshiped Him. If Joseph had thought he had seen it all, now he knew it.

Could you imagine something similar to this happening? Can you put yourself into the place of Mary or Joseph and try to think the thoughts that must have been running through their minds? Nothing about the story was clean or well-planned except by God of course. Only He knows the full plan.


Only God knows the full plan for your life. Wouldn't it be beneficial to trust Him with it and not worry about the future? He has a plan.

Christmas is Just Around the Corner!

Everyone including me is rushing around trying to make everything the way the whole family expects it to be. We cook like crazy to make enough food to feed ourselves, and we normally have enough left over to feed the next door neighbors. We pull out every decoration that we own and spend countless hours trying to figure out where to plug them all in. Because the family is coming to our house, we clean and clean until everything is slick enough to ice skate on.

Not to mention all the effort we put into writing the Christmas cards every year or the time it takes to get everyone looking nice enough at the same time to take a Christmas photo. Or we could talk about all the time that we spend, not always on the people we love and want to appreciate, but on tyring to make everything "perfect."

I recently heard a wonderful woman named Cathie Lip speak at my church. She said she had a very wise friend who really didn't find any joy in cooking a huge meal for her family every year, but she did because she assumed that that was what everyone wanted. This friend had a brilliant idea one year, and she decided to ask her kids to each pick one food item for her to make on Christmas Day. She asked each one and the only thing that anyone said was crescent rolls.

"You mean the ones that come in a can?" she asked.

"Yeah, those mommy."

"What about the gingerbread houses? Don't you want to have them?"

"No, we don't like the gingerbread houses. We want the crescent rolls."

This year they're having KFC and crescent rolls for Christmas.

All of this to say, I think we all tend to take Christmas to the max. Baking, decorating, cooking, cleaning and shopping are all fun things, but we put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves to do things that really have no special meaning to anyone; they're just tradition.

After Mommy G heard Cathie speak, she sat everyone down at our kitchen table and asked what we would keep in our Christmas. Things like a real tree and pie for breakfast on Christmas morning were said, but the thing that most of us agreed on was the fact that we wanted to have a relaxed Christmas morning to ourselves.

So that's what we are doing, although it will have to be cut a little short this year since we are eating dinner early because my uncle has to work. I think the cutting out "unnecessaries" was a good idea, and it helps us to slow down a bit and remember the real meaning behind all the festivities and celebrations.

Christ was born!

Luke 2:11 "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Going Green

Christmas is coming so we decided to hold off on the dark blue dots and try to add some "festiveness" to ETST by going green. And that's not green in the materials used or energy efficency sense, but the color. Just in case you were wondering...

Sorry...For Everything...

Everyone,

Oh, and please forgive us for taking such a long and unannounced break from posting. Our lives, like everyone else's, have been absolutely crazy... Can't wait for Christmas break!

Sincerely,
The Authors

P.S. We are really sorry....Really. Really really. We promise...

Wacky Web-Pic Wednesday #11

Wacky Web-Pic Day has rolled (literally) around again and it's time to share with you a strange/freaky/odd/unusual picture from our friend the Internet.


This is an egg. But it isn't just an egg, it's a chocolate egg. Notice that the thing next to the egg is not an action figure: it's a man. Crazy!


I know what I want for Christmas! But seriously, who could ever eat that much chocolate before it went bad? I think I could come close.