Have a Joyous and safe Christmas and Newyears holiday

I wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season. This will be the last post until after the holidays. If you would like to read more I would suggest  reading my "Gifts and Calling" series. That was one of my favorite topics to work on.
Here are links to those articles:
Worrying about God's will - Moses isn't sure
Lagging behind - Jonah runs away
Getting ahead of God - Saul can't wait
Hearing God
Investing your life in God's Kingdom
The high calling to follow Jesus

Christmas Story 3

"Emmanuel," Joseph said as he reached for the child.

"Don't get any grand illusions about your first boy. He's a handsome thing, and he may turn out to be great, but he's not our Savior!"

Mary and Joseph just smiled at each other knowingly.

Later on that night more visitors came. Esther saw some shepherds walk straight past her into her stable. She overheard them sharing a strange story of a vision of angels, and of a proclamation of the birth of the Savior. They were told by these angels that they would find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. So, they had come to worship their Messiah.

The next day as Esther was getting Dilly and Olley ready for work, she kept mumbling to herself about the strange night she had just had, and all that she heard.

"According to what their donkey told me," said Dilly to Olley, "they came all the way from Nazareth; a long, long ,long way from here."

"Yea, and did you see that brilliant star in the sky, the tail of it seemed to reach right down to our stable?" asked Olley. "You see, I had to go outside for a while, it was getting too stuffy in here with all those humans."

"But mostly, did you feel a - a certain - a presence of peace and a welcoming love in here when that child, Jesus was born?" asked Dilly.

"You felt that too, huh?" questioned Olley.

"I wonder if that Jesus is really our Messiah after all," pondered Esther out loud. "I just wonder..."

Dilley Donkey and Olley Oxen Free nodded to each other and winked, as they prepared to start this new day with a special joy.

Christmas Story 2

A man and his expectant wife approached the doorstep of the last inn in town.

"I do hope they have room here." she said tiredly, as he knocked on the door.
Just then the door opened a crack. "We're full!" someone angrily said.

"Please, don't you have some place we could stay? My wife is with child and you are our last hope." pleaded Joseph.

The innkeeper's stout wife was a midwife and upon hearing the mention of a child, was overcome by her maternal instincts. She practically knocked her spindled husband into the street as she said, "My husband was thinking of putting guests in the stable anyway, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you fixed a nice place in the straw. And then I'll bring you out something warm to eat."

"Thank you so much!" both travelers exclaimed.

"Eee-haw! Hee-haw! My worst fears have materialized!" cried Dilly to Olley. "Look at what's coming through the door!"

"People!" muttered Olley. "Two people are actually spending the night in our barn, how dare they do this to us!"

Joseph and Mary had traveled along way that day and welcomed any haven of rest that God saw fit to provide.

Later on, that very night, the innkeepers wife, Esther, came to help deliver Mary's child. When the child was born, Esther put him in Dilley's untouched manger of straw and called for Joseph to come see his newborn son.
(to be cont)