From The Pig Pen Return to Bethlehem and to Our Senses

I would like to extend the warmest of greetings to you faithful followers of The Buzz. As I write this column, Christmas is just a little over a month away. It hardly seems possible. I know that time is measured in the same manner as in my childhood. Yet, the seasons seem to come and go at a faster rate. Oh well, I guess that is just a part of growing older. But, when you stop to think about it, growing old is not such a bad thing. It means that I can write a few more articles, pester a few more people, and I can enjoy my family, friends, and life in general. I am truly blessed beyond words adequate to describe.

One of my fondest Christmas memories, as a child, was hearing The Christmas Story read from the Gospel of Luke according to the King James Version each year. One of our church members, Mrs. Evelyn Crawford, would recite the whole narrative from memory. Though Mrs. Evelyn’s health no longer permits her to carry out this yearly ritual, it remains firmly embedded in the minds and hearts of all who were so fortunate to have heard her in former years.

Mary and her husband Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, at the decree of Caesar Augustus, to participate in a census, in order that all of the world should be taxed. Each individual was required to return to the city of their birth where these taxes had to be paid. As we all know, it was while they were in Bethlehem, that Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was born. This was an event that brought hope, peace, and joy unto a world that stood in desperate need. Times have changed and the years have come and gone, but nothing can match the perfection and the simplicity of the Bethlehem stable.

Could it possibly just be that you and I desperately need to make that same trek to Bethlehem this Christmas? All around us, we see and experience a world filled with chaos. Mass murder seems to have become the rule rather than the exception. We are quite possibly standing on the brink of nuclear war. Our elected officials, the media, and the citizens of this great nation are engaged in a seemingly never ending debate over health care, tax reform, immigration, gun control, the placement of historical markers, and a host of other issues. Now you might just be asking, what does all of this have to do with a census taken some two thousand years ago? Perhaps, by retracing the treacherous journey of Mary and Joseph this Christmas, we both individually and collectively as Americans can also take a census as a means of determining just where we are at the present time.

Can taking part in such a census be of any harm? I, personally, cannot envision things becoming much worse. Is it just possible that such a census might just help us return to our “SENSES?” There again, I know it is hard to make good sense out of my unorganized, never ending rambling. May the peace of Christ abide with you, and as always, until we next meet, be of good cheer.