My name is Julianne Scott. I am an avid reader of classic literature, new to the gluten-free lifestyle (tips welcome!), and quite in to my collection of paintings that I began a year ago. I write a letter or two everyday to be stored for future use or directly snail mailed. I thrive with creative cooking & crafting, hearty laughing, and family.
Merry Christmas! I hope you all are signing your Christmas cards and thinking to wrap up your shopping (pun entirely intended) and having night & daydreams of the enchantment of your Christmas that is 12 days approaching. I’m excited to have been asked by my lovely friend Lauryn to guest write on her chic blog during a time of year that makes my heart beat to Carol of the Bells. So, thank you friend!
Personally, I NEVER tire of the nativity story of Jesus. Honest! In 1st grade, we each had one “All About Me” week where we laminated all of our hopes, dreams and favorites and showcased ourselves on an enormous bulletin board. One of our requirements was to write our favorite quote (a quote from 1st graders? I don’t know either). I put a scripture; can you dream up what it was? The entire chapters of Matthew 1 & 2. I was that 6 year old you hear about that was obsessed with genealogy and all things babies (you know, the one you hear about everyday on the news). But even today, I will see several renditions of the nativity story each year and clap just as eagerly for each. Why am I telling you some of my dorkiest qualities? Well, after 14 years of giddy enjoyment, I’ve found considerable humor in the history found in Matthew and Luke and I’d like to share just a couple with you.
I’m pretty sure Jesus was the only baby, ever, whose first bed was a livestock trough. For those who thought the manger was an intricately designed wooden piece of constructed art…Nope! Think about it, the only hotel Joseph and Mary could find on the fly was a stable (they resided in the animal home). With that smell and setting in your mind, know that Jesus’ sleeping place was likely a used manger. That is not like a used car, a used manger means that cattle or horses have stuffed their bocas feeding after feeding in that porous feasting place. Good thing our baby Savior was wrapped in swaddling clothes, amen?! Speaking of the soon to be Dad and Mom…
Remember the part of the story when Joseph and pregnant Mary are ending their travel and they had just barely made it to Bethlehem when Mary went into labor? Remember how they found no vacancy absolutely everywhere they asked? We know that because they ended up in that previously commented on germ-infested stable. Excuse me, a woman was “he-he-hooing”, drizzling sweat, and about to secrete a human from her body and “Well sorry sir, we just don’t have any room…”. Who does that?! Please, for the sake of humanity, if a couple knuckles your front door this Christmas and they request a place to rest because the wife is in the process of birthing her baby, say yes.
I hope you will now go and read this history with a smirk on your face, seeing it in a new way than before; a comical way. But one last thing that is cool is that this nativity story is dripping with love (patience, endurance, pursuit). The whole story is about this baby who is sought after and so protected. It’s a direct correlation to whom Jesus grew up in to; our Savior from harm, our shelter, and our protector.
So, go love a baby today and have a Merry Christmas!
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