Seasons Greetings from Molokoloko

...Christmas greetings...of course ....Happy, happy Christmas...

 

...where did the year go? It was January 2012 not long ago.....

I love this time of year, I have complete free reign to go over the top with glitter, and glue and thinking of YOU....

...to bake, taste and eat all the seasonal treats....

...but the best of all is when, with a ping or plop, an email or card from you appears on the screen or the mat!

...to catch up with news on family and friends, share their tears (hope not) and their smiles - nothing can ever beat that!

OK - enough of the dreadful rhyming stuff! But hope your Christmases are all that you hoped and wished for and that you have plenty to look forward to in 2013 and to remember fondly about in 2012. My love to all of you.

Early morning walk December 11th - the Dogs, JP, Occy, and me.

 

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I think I mention most years the real story behind Christmas-Now hold on there Sarah and other atheists this is NOT going to be a preachy definitely NOT! Let me call it the Camoflaged Christmas or the Hidden Christmas story....or possibly Joseph's Story...there's a clue.

You see - Christmas began before Christ...(dear old Google has many, many links and I just chose this one at random...so Google would have us believe and who am I to argue with that? ) It began with a time of lawlessness when Roman courts were closed and the law said no one could be punished for bad behaviour for the week of Saturnalia form 17-25th December...and then, later on, Dionysius Exiguus, a monk made a few calculations in the days before whizzy computers and made a mistake about when Jesus was born ...well, read the link for yourselves - no point me just paraphrasing from Google - it's interesting.

Anyway - the point is in recent history Christmas has been a time of celebrating the Holy Birth of Jesus. And since my family have clearly been indoctrinated with this idea they appear to time the conception of their own off-spring to coincide quite closely with birthing at about Christmas time.  Now much as I love my incredible grandchildren, I do beg you to consider your timing in future. The position now, instead of just Doug having a birthday very close to Christmas...and that was not intentional...how was I to know you could fall pregnant when breast feeding...all the books say you can't! We didn't have Google then or maybe I'd have known...anyway...aside from Doug there are Thandi, Leah and now Jonah...all within the month of Christmas...have pity...how can I fit all these birthday presents into my budget in the Christmas month? So in future, if you are thinking of adding to my incredibly wonderful grandchildren please, please could you aim at about March to August?...

Oh dear, I am getting side tracked...so where is this hidden Christmas story? Most of you know the usual Christmas story but the one I'm looking at is the one hidden 'between the lines' as the saying goes.

Let's start with the characters in the story...

First the Magi ...some astronomers ...I'm reading a book about astronomers at the moment - Sue Townsend (of the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole) - The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year...her husband and his mistress are astronomers and what a peculiar lot they are! Wonder if it is based on Ms Townsend's knowledge of astronomers in general...

Well some astronomers decided that they has spotted a new super-nova or whatever through their wonderful telescopes and since they didn't live in Britain with the constant almost January to December cloud cover they had a good chance of spotting stars from the depths of the Arabian desert or thereabouts...and they decided the star was moving - no Hawkings to tell them that the universe is expanding forever, they were the Hawkings of their day ...they decided to follow this new star as, according to these sages, it heralded the birth of a new King, a Super-Hero-King who could save the world...guess it was much in the state it is today - loads of bad things going on. So the story involves three eccentric sages on a camel safari...I mean... wouldn't that beg to grab YOUR attention if you read it in a new book today?

Not only did they embark on a safari of unknown duration but they knew there was going to be a 'baby' in the spot the star indicated by standing still and not moving. Furthermore they were taking mostly unsuitable presents for this Stranger-Baby, gold, frankincense and myrrh...what baby wants or needs frankincense or myrrh - the gold would have been useful though, kids are notoriously expensive to rear...but shouldn't charity start at home if they had to go giving babies gifts?...However, the Astonomers insisted that the baby they were seeking would be a future Great King...the birth was being forecast by the supernova indicated a princeling was on his way....but back to gifts...even for a princling the gold, frankincense and myrrh were a bit extreme...

OK, so much for the academe of the day - now what about the happy couple expecting their first baby...this child to be born under a special star...I don't think the parents had any idea about the star, not being astronomers themselves or even academics - no, the parents were just working people - Joseph was a carpenter and Mary a young girl who helped around the family home. Now here's the very interesting bit...they were engaged to be married and Mary fell pregnant.

Well there is not much to raise your eyebrows at in this day at that bit of news but it was most definitely frowned upon with an indelible scowl if it happened those many years ago in that society. The punishment could be pretty dreadful for committing such a heinous crime (I believe the same holds true in some places in the world even today) The story goes that a celestial being - Gabriel, an angel, told Mary that she was going to have a baby...a holy baby... the Son of God. Frankly if I had been a sweet innocent young girl who suddenly found out she was pregnant and the child wasn't even her betrothed's child I'd have had a bit of explaining to do ...to everyone! To her own family and to Joseph...however this celestial being smoothed the way for her - thank goodness...he also visited Joseph and told him that Mary was pregnant, the child was the Son of God and Joseph must not be cross with Mary.

OK...OK...I know it is far fetched. But, look I'm just repeating a well known story - humour me, just go with it. Otherwise we are going to spoil the fun of Christmas. I was thinking about Joseph (actually he comes out of the story in excellent light)...and Mary poor innocent child appears to have been just that - an innocent and this celestial being ...well, what does an angel look like? What did or does Gabriel look like? The Bible doesn't tell us...so how should we recognise angels? Some years ago I went on a quest to find out what angels looked like and Gabriel in particular. One kind vicar pointed me to the Koran! Yep, that's the truth...and indeed a very nice description, a very good looking young man. OK - easy to see why that is left out of the Bible...HOWEVER - this is Christmas so just go with the story - as I told you at the beginning this is the in between the lines version of te Christmas story and it has some surprises...

Anyway - let's continue - pretty much over due date those pesky governors decided to call a census and since there was no postal voting or email facilities the poor couple had to hitch up a donkey (no cars, trains or planes either) and make a journey to Bethlehem their ancestral town. Anyway they trekked for miles, Mary on the donkey...and I guess had to take it pretty slowly because when they got Bethlehem there was no accommodation for them, it was all taken. I do wonder since it was their ancestral town what had happened to any relatives they might have begged a space from, but it appears they didn't...so after trying to get some place to stay eventually one inn keeper said he had a stable, some sort of animal shelter - they could use it...

What was going through Joseph's head? No comfortable room, very pregnant wife (I guess she was by then), what if the baby arrived - he was a man not a midwife...no scans, no gadgets to listen for the baby's heart beat...probably not much in the way of hot water either ...no pain killers! Stoic - that's what I think of them - they didn't even have electricity to see clearly!

They settled into the stable and Mary went into labour....we'll leave them here for now. Use your imagination ...those of us who have experienced childbirth will have a better idea of what it was like than others, imagine young woman first child and Joseph...for goodness sake - have you seen what happens to most men when they have to deal with the birth of their child... but for now we will concentrate on another set of Christmas people...

Who else is in this incredible story...enter shepherds...and more angels - hosts of them...that means a lotta angels! (Hosts -Online dictionary defines it as 1. An army.2. A great number; a multitude.)

I haven't checked in the Koran what these hosts of angels looked like - were they all men-types or handsome...who knows? Bet the shepherds thought for a moment it was 'rainingmen'...

OK, Shepherds sitting on the hillside with their sheep - imagine it ...it sounds as if there were more than one shepherd. Probably sitting round a fire, I think it is quite chilly round Bethlehem in December...then again maybe December isn't when the actual event happened ...but I like to imagine the shepherds sitting round a fire - if not for warmth then to cook food and create a bit of light. And not having any radio, MP3 player, smart phone or any other modern gadget to entertain them...not even a newspaper (Take note of that point it becomes very important, no communications or social media access,explains the frequent visits of Gabriel, the heavenly journalist /broadcaster in a way)..they were probably chatting among themselves...proper shepherd speak...how many lambings, best pasture, state of foot-rot...the predators in the area...maybe even poachers? Stock thefts? So as they sat yarning out of nowhere, apropos nothing relating to shepherds life, appears an army of angels singing and making a huge noise! Whe-hey...bet those shepherds wondered what the apprentice shepherd had added to their roll-ups tobacco!

Anyway...interesting point...the Bible didn't say what reaction the sheep and, dare I say it, the Border Collies of the day thought about this...if they had sheep dogs...I know how JP would have reacted...he'd have gone crazy-mad barking and carrying on...he'd view the Heavenly Hosts as sheep predators and go ballistic...as for the sheep - I think they would have started to run around and create all kinds of trouble - even if they were corralled somehow...but the Bible doesn't give this detail so we can have fun imagining it for ourselves...any of you farmers? C'mon - give a bit of feed back as to how you think the sheep would have behaved...Probably with terror. As did the shepherds because the Angels told them to 'Fear not'...I think we can safely assume the angels bursting upon the shepherds like that definitely caused pandemonium ...today it isn't angels but Schmallenbergs that causes the distress...

Oh, while I think about it...have you ever wondered who else other than the shepherds saw those hosts of singing angels? I would think quite a lot of other people...singing angels are something you jolly well should notice...just a thought...the Bible doesn't mention anyone else...I think that is strange...but then again it doesn't say that no one else noticed the angels.

The angels, due to lack of snail mail, email, radio, TV or social media not yet being invented, were the very first sing-o-gram for the baby's birthday...in a manner of speaking and the shepherds, when they had gathered their wits and their sheep safely went off to find the Baby the Angels had told them about.

Who comes in next ?..The next one we hear about is apparently a villain....no less than one of the King Herods, there were a few of those I think, and the one reigning at the time was not a nice man...he was pretty jittery about being de-throned by some rival it seems....every good story has to have a villain and this story is sticking to the rules.

The travelling astronomers had spent months and months following the supernova and it stopped over Bethlehem, in King Herod's domain...getting interesting isn't it...The astronomers, being clever decided they needed to ask some Man Of Authority if there was a new king born in the region. Who would know better than the reigning King? After all a new prince to be king must come from royal lineage...or so they thought being wise and men of logic and learning.

In the fitting role of villain Herod welcomed the Astronomers, he was most surprised (shocked, but he tried not to show that) to hear that a Prince had been born, but being the crafty villain he asked the Astronomers to come back and tell him when they found the child so that he could go and worship him too. Off went the Astronomers - but not fooled by crafty Herod. They certainly didn't go back and tell him when they found the baby King, oh no!   That angel Gabriel popped up again and warned them...he was busy, wasn't he?   There is the grisly tale of Herod murdering all little boys under the age of two when he realised he'd been tricked...but for now I won't go into that ...I don't do horror, specially not at Christmas time and Baby Jesus had escaped with his parents to  Egypt ...as Joseph was also warned by Angel Gabriel to flee.   By the time Herod tumbled to the fact that he had been tricked by the Astronomers the little family was far away..

And there is a character in this story - one who doesn't ordinarily get much of a mention so I'd like to specially mention him...although I have many times already...what I mean is let me draw special attention to him.

Let's take time out to think about Joseph for a moment...he's the quiet hero of the story in my opinion. He's the one who did all the solid background stuff. He took the advice of Gabriel and married his pregnant fiancee, Mary, brought up the child that wasn't his.   As far as we know from the Bible he actually delivered the baby Jesus - there is no mention of anyone else being there...when the Angel Gabriel came back in a dream to warn Joseph to get out of the country or Herod would kill the child it was he who packed up his family and did just that...he was a carpenter...did he have to leave his job or give up his business to enable the inter-country move?   He cared for his wife and child, protects the innocent child from all evil, raises him to be a God fearing intelligent young man and then quietly fades into the back ground. What an incredible man.

He is the one who quietly did a lot of supporting, a lot of quite difficult tasks without a murmur of complaint...we could learn a lot from him, how to be the steady hand on the rudder of our family lives especially in the onslaught of any kind of storm. Not showy, not in the foreground, no boasting...just dependable and THERE. This Christmas...raise a cheer for and to quiet old reliable Joseph...without him this would have been a different story all together.

We can't all be like Jesus so innocent and pure.  Not much hope of being like Mary,  also innocent...we aren't at all like angels, though we might be a bit like the shepherds...heaven forbid any of us be as nasty as Herod...but Joseph...now there's an example for ordinary people like you and me.   Perhaps next year we could try to be a bit more like Joseph,  just, merciful and humble Joseph....

 

 

 

Love from us all at Molokoloko