Posted by John Kuhn Bleimaier on December 22, 2013, 11:39 pm
News flash from the occupied territories on the West Bank of the Jordan River: It is an inordinately cold winter in the Middle East. Nevertheless, a bureaucratic occupation government is requiring all Palestinians to comply with a convoluted census regulation. Everyone is compelled to return to his or her ancestral village in order to be counted. A tradesman and his pregnant fiancée are forced to make a difficult journey from one end of “the territories” to the other in order to obey the occupier’s decree. A defeated and humiliated people are used to hardships.
Perhaps you’ve heard this story. It’s pretty involved, but it has a happy ending. There is a celestial disturbance. Some research scholars from abroad show up. Some local farm boys hear voices in the night. The Palestinian young woman makes it to Bethlehem and has her child… and the world will never be the same again.
The Word has become flesh and dwells among us. We have learned that forgiveness and sacrifice are signs of strength; that love overcomes hate; and that salvation comes by grace through faith. With it comes peace.