Merry Christmas 2009

This is my Christmas post for 2009. If you were expecting a card, well this is the only Christmas card I distribute. Oh, it's not because I'm lazy or I forgot. It's because I really hate greeting cards. I am a pretty conservative man (OK, Pam says I'm cheap) and it just seems like a waste of time and money to me. One place I worked as a Supervisor, I had to sign birthday, get well, condolence, and of course Christmas cards for for all my employees and often for other employees at the facility. I had 30 employees and there were about 300 to 500 other employees at the facility where I worked. My name was on a lot of Christmas cards of people I didn't even know. So I guess greetings cards just lost their meaning.

I do love Christmas; even though I am a Christmas card Scrooge. I like the music, I like to see all the decoration and lights. I like the general festive mood people on the street have, as they give it one last try to make it to the "nice list" before Santa comes.

I like to remember the real reason for Christmas. Of course, I remember what Jesus has done for us and celebrate his arrival during this season. There is another Biblical person I really think a lot about this time of year....The worlds most famous step-dad; Joseph.

Being a step-father myself, I see Joseph's faith and strength amazing. I mean this is a guy, that has to believe that somehow his girlfriend got pregnant from God. I can imagine the ridicule at the time, from the people in town talking about Joseph and his pregnant girlfriend. I am sure Joe had some difficulty defending his and Mary's honor during that time. I don't think everybody would have believed that Mary was a pregnant virgin. Pretty tough pill to swallow. It took an angel to tell Joseph that it was real, before he believed.

So during this time of dealing with the fact that he was going to be the step-father to God, getting ridiculed by his peers, taking care of his pregnant girlfriend, and normal every day stresses of the day (not an easy time to live in). The government thought they needed a census. Instead of some guy coming to your door to count you, they decided to have everybody in the area travel to Bethlehem to be counted.

So now Joseph is forced to travel to Bethlehem with his wife, who is near time to deliver a child. Of course since everybody is in Bethlehem to be counted, there is no accommodations. Joe had to scrounge for a place to sleep and as a last resort they found a barn. This is where Mary gives birth to Jesus. Then the family (mainly Jesus) is visited by all these people. Now, to add to Joe's stress level, he gets to have royal company, in a barn of all places. He has no way to host these Kings, nothing to give, not even a comfortable place to sleep.

Think of what was going through Joseph's head as he raised Jesus. He had quite a chore, I mean how do you raise the Son of God? Talk about stress. Can you ground him if he does something wrong? Or spank him? Talk about intimidation. I guess my point to all this is, Please don't forget what this season is really all about, the birth of our Lord.

Another birthday (much less significant) occurs on the 31st of December. Plumb and Square will be turning 1 year old. I would like to thank all my readers for taking the time to visit my little blog, I have enjoyed writing it and all the comments that you have made over the last year.

Merry Christmas from Plumb and Square. T²