Christmas in Bethlehem

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. I spent the whole fall season chasing after two busy boys and then I was too tired at the end of each day to focus on a post. I will attempt to do better. Better late than never.

A few weeks ago I looked for an impression paper that I wrote after I went to Bethlehem in 1990 when I studied in Israel for a semester. I love history and minored in it for my first bachelors degree. I later ran across the missing paper while I was ironically looking for an appropriate size box to mail gifts to friends and family. Here it is in its entirety.

November 10, 1990

This week our class began the New Testament with Christ's birth. We went to the Shepherds' Fields Wednesday between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We had a little program and we sang of and discussed Christ's birth.

In my family, Christmas season begins each year with buying our tree and then discussing, as a family, Christ's birth. Wednesday I was with my temporary "family" and we were in a field with some evergreens. In my mind, Christmas season has begun this year.

After our program, I had time to reflect upon the significance of Christ's birth in my life. At this time my thoughts are directed toward the night of his birth and what might have been in the hearts of a young mother, her new husband, reverent shepherds, and a grand multitude of angles singing praises to their new born king. What were they thinking? How did they feel?

I tried to imagine a little town of Bethlehem just over the hills in front of me. I suspect there weren't as many lights as I saw this evening. As I lay on a large stone, looking up into the heavens, I see many stars. I hear a dog bark and a child cry in the distance. For a moment in time, life spans back to His birth.

I see a tiny wrinkled child wrapped in rags lying in a trough of hay for a bed. The Holy Ghost testifies to me that this is the child long hoped for by many. This is the child chosen to redeem me from my sins, if I take advantage of His offering.

I don't know if I was part of that heavenly host singing praises to God that holy night. If I was, I pray that someday, when the veil is dropped from my eyes, I will be able to reflect upon this night with a new and deeper understanding I will have gained from this mortal life of what Christ's birth means to me. I pray now that at this future time, I will be worthy to come into His presence again and sing praises to him forever more.