The Birth of Jesus

I realize there are four more days until Christmas Eve, but I wanna get the whole story in by then. So, here we are, watching Joseph trudging to Bethlehem with a very pregnant Mary. We all know what happens next. I always wonder how that happened. Wasn’t Bethlehem the home of Joseph’s relatives? Wouldn’t someone have made room for poor Mary to have her baby? But it’s not for me to question the Bible Story. More like, I should be forever in awe of the amazing things that God has done for us.  

Luke 2:1-7, New Living Translation

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

(And my apologies if the duck family seems irreverent. Of the 12 nativity sets I have out, this is the only one where Baby Jesus is thoroughly swaddled.)

Mary Visits Elizabeth

In Luke, chapter 1, Mary is told by an angel that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and deliver a baby who was the Son of God. According to the verses I shared here on Sunday, she took the news surprisingly well. And today we read how she wanted to share that news with her relative Elizabeth.

Whether we have good new or bad news, isn’t it helpful to share it with someone else, like a trusted friend or relative?  

Luke 1:39-45, New Living Translation

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

 
Nearly every December since I started writing this blog, I’ve written a series of blog posts around a certain theme leading up to Christmas. This year? Nothing clever came to mind. But you know what? Telling the Christmas story doesn’t have to be new and fresh. Sometimes, it’s best to go back to basics. As one of my cousins shared with me recently, he will celebrate Christmas day by reading the story of Christ’s birth straight out of Luke.

Luke 1:26-38, New Living Translation

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “For you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Apsara Dance - Cambodia blog entry #28

I’m trying to gather my thoughts regarding yet another experience we were privileged to enjoy in Cambodia.

After securing our table in the dinner theater, we wandered to the buffet to load up our plates. Oh, how I wish I would have taken pictures of those multiple lines of food! But I didn’t want to scream Western tourist. Yes, everyone there was a tourist just like us, but I think all of them were from another Asian country and none of them were snapping pictures of their food, which probably was nothing unusual to them.

 Enough about dinner.

The Apsara dance show was beautiful.

Many of intricate moves of the dancers were taken from the ancient bas reliefs on the temples we’d been seeing.

And each pose meant something, part of the complete story which their dance told.

The only disappointment was that halfway through the show, 40 or 50 people got up and left. I assume, all to get back on their tour bus to return to their hotel. But how incredibly rude! It left about twelve of us in the huge room watching the breath-taking dancers finish their show, their crestfallen faces scanning the near empty room.

Life in the Harbor of the Tusks - Cambodia blog entry #27

You may be relieved to hear that Friday's post will be my last one about my Cambodian trip until after the Christmas holidays. I'm letting you know now so that you will be more excited to read these last two posts.

Our tuk tuk picked us up one morning, and we headed off to the floating villages along the Tonlé Sap River. 

Tonlé Sap means 'vast body of fresh water' or 'great lake' in the Khmer language. There are many inlets into this large river, and many villages have been built along those banks. The homes are all built on stilts, since during the rainy season, these inlets flood, giving the appearance that some of these homes are floating on the water. 

There are four floating villages in the area around Siem Reap, and we visited the one named Kompong Phluk, which means "Harbor of the Tusks". 

We boarded our tour boat and began chugging along like the African Queen.

Can you say, "sketchy transmission".

I reflected on my privileged life and how my needs are met with minimal sacrifice, yet I complain so much. Even though I refuse to wear designer clothes, buy most of my clothes at Goodwill or St Vinnie, use the same old battered purse forever, use my cell phone until it doesn't hold a charge, and challenge every vehicle to roll a hundred thousand miles before looking for a newer used car.

There are a lot more sacrifices I could make, but I try to live modestly. But nothing is taken for granted out there in those tacked-together shacks on stilts over the river with a depth dependent on the dry versus rainy season. 

Every day must be a struggle. Living off fishing, these residents find each season brings a new challenge. When the fish are spawning, fishing with nets is illegal, but can a family live on what is caught with a pole? 

There's a public school out there somewhere among the water, but how many kids are committed to going? There's a grocery store, too, but can it be kept stocked with fresh food?  

And yet, I bet the families are as happy as those I've met in the Bush of Kenya. They may not even know that much about the outside world. All they know is their little world, and they get by day to day without much thought of what's beyond their watery home. 

Sometimes, I think they are the ones who are lucky, who are living their best lives, while privileged populations don't even know what a best life is. 

My New Heroes - Cambodia blog entry #26

Much earlier in this series of blog posts, I told you about the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum, and about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in the seventies. I told you how heart-wrenching that all was. Somehow, I held my emotions in check through all of that.

A week later, still in Cambodia, I just about broke down, learning about some true heroes, ones who are turning back the clock on those injustices and making a difference in the lives of many still facing horror in Southeast Asia.

Meet Glen.

 And Gordon (with his handler and Denise).

They are African Giant Pouched Rats who have been granted the title of HeroRats.  

Nearly 60 countries have land which still contains hidden landmines and other explosives, leftover from war. These devices kill indiscriminately, and in just 2023, they caused at least 5,757 casualties, of which 84% were civilians and 37% children.

How can these explosive devices be found safely so that they can be demolished in a controlled setting? It would take a human with a metal detector up to four days to clear an area the size of a tennis court. A HeroRat can search that area in thirty minutes, because he or she is trained to sniff out the explosive and not any other metal that may be buried there.

When we hear the word “rat”, we all picture a rodent digging around in trash, carrying fleas and diseases. But rats are actually very intelligent, easy to train, and have a remarkable sense of smell. They are also perfect for landmine and explosive detection, because they don’t weigh very much, so they can’t set off a device if they step on one. Also, they can live up to eight years, don’t eat much, and are easy to transport, so basically, they are really cheap labor.

But they love doing their job and they love the treats they are rewarded with. Okay, maybe they just love the treats. But they are still heroes for anyone who lives in a country where there are still active hidden explosives in the ground.

Please click here to view to their website, APOPO, to see what else these rats have been  trained to do, and consider making a donation.

(APOPO is an acronym from Dutch which stands for “Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling”, or in English, Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development.)

Preah Khan Temple - Cambodia blog entry #25

The last ancient temple we toured in Cambodia was Preah Khan. Only we didn’t really tour it; we sprinted it.

Long story. We were scheduled to be done with the day’s three temples and back to our hotel by 1:30, for an afternoon of leisure. So, us three women made appointments at the spa next door for 2:00. Plenty of time, right?

I don’t know where we got behind schedule, but we walked into Preah Khan around quarter to one. K guaranteed us we had plenty of time to get back for our appointment, that it wouldn't take long to get through this temple and we were only a half hour drive from our hotel. Oh, and we never stopped for lunch that day, so I was already getting hangry.

I’m not going to tell you anything about the temple, just let you view it like I felt I did – one scene right after another. And did I tell you this place was huge?!