Monday, July 17, 2006

Did you know?

Did you know that there is no reason to believe that there were Three Wise Men at the nativity?

Did you know that the Wise Men didn’t get to Bethlehem until years after the birth so they really don’t belong in the nativity?

Did you know that there were probably no “cattle lowing” or sheep at the nativity?

Did you know that the birth probably didn’t happen during the Christmas time of year?

Where did we get these ideas? From songs, poems, traditions handed down through generations and they were simply made up. Some are obvious like “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Alfie the Christmas Tree” but many are not and have slipped into our collective minds as facts of Christmas. This is dangerous in two ways. It is dangerous to start to believe things that aren’t true as being true. It is dangerous because it cast ALL of Christmas in a suspicious light since we don’t know fact from fiction.

After just completing another political season we can see the same thing happening there. Fact and fiction are mixed, shaken and stirred and then served to us in sound bites and video clips. We don’t know which are true and which are not so ALL is suspect and NOTHING is believed.

When you lie you join the problem. You jump into the subjective mix of fact and fiction and create a sense of relativity and disbelief, making all truth subjective. Now I am not saying that celebrating Christmas with this traditions and songs is going to destroy our country but I am saying that truth and reality is important. Don’t lose truth and the important things in the wrapping paper of Christmas. Remember the real gift that is in the form of a baby, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger filled with cloth, and of whom the angels sang: “Glory to God in the heights, and peace to all mankind.”

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