HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1987-12-23, Page 28Page 12A/Lucknow Sentinel/Wed., December 23, 1987
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who have custoers been like the you
� foundation of our
success.
Charmans 528-2526
KEN AND ELEANOR
ran
Here's hoping Saint
Nick brings you and your
Loved ones much good
Tuck and happiness
this Christmas.
Cliff's
Plumbing
and
Heating
LUCKNOW
528-3913
4,14
As carolers sing and
festivities abound, we'd
like to say, "Thank you in
every way for being so kind."
Have a very Merry Christmas, All!
4111kiZt
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Mana9amane and Staff of
Lucknow Farm Supply
Lucknow 528-2331 1E2
To Bethlehem, with love
BYNATRANAEL OLSON
Bethlehem, is that really you,
perched on the steep ridge of
Judaea's stony hill country? I
though you were a "little town"
of perhaps 300 people as you were 2,000
years ago, and as I've always pictured
you while singing "0 Little Town of
Bethlehem." But now they tell me you're
filled with over 35,000 residents plus
thousands of tourists who, like me, have
come the four -and -a -half miles from .
Jerusalem to see the birthplace of our
Saviour.
Well, I shouldn't be surprised at your
growth. A good place, like a good per-
son, has the right to flourish. Time has a
way of changing most things. Take
transportation, for example. Frankly, I'd
much rather be approaching you in this
comfortable, air-conditioned bus than
walking footsore beside a disgruntled
donkey as Mary and Joseph did nineteen
centuries ago.
Enough of my philosophizing! I see
we're driving down your famous
"Manger Street" headed for the Church
of the Nativity. No doubt this is the
street Phillips Brooks had in mind when
be wrote:
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we
see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by;
Yet in the dark streets shlneth the
everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are
met in thee tonight.
Our bus is now pulling into the parking
lot across the street from The Church of
the Nativity. Our Israeli guide leads the
way to the place where God took human
form and I, along with my daughter and
forty-three American friends, push for-
ward, anxious to see the sacred spot
where Christ was born.
Minutes later, we're standing in this
hallowed place — the lowly stable where
Mary and Joseph found shelter when your
hotel was bursting with reluctant tax-
payers. A stable! What an ugly yet
beautiful place for God to enter the
human race. Ugly as far as worldly
qualities are concerned; yet beautiful in
that there was no hollow Roman pomp
and circumstance to detract from the
sincere love story of these two from
Galilee whose humble hearts were willing
to be misunderstood so God's Son could
be born of a virgin as foretold by the pro-
phet Isaiah.
The guide is now pointing to the place
where Jesus was born. Then, over in a
corner away from the draft, is the
manger where Mary laid her baby, tight-
ly wrapped in swaddling clothes. I
glance over at Melody, my seventeen-
year -old daughter. Her brown eyes are
misty with tears and I feel my heart
brimming with emotion. How privileged
we feel to be eye -witnesses of the very
birthplace of our Savior, Lord and King!
For Christ is born of Mary; and
gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wond'ring love.
0 morning stars, together proclaim the
holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and
peace to men on earth.
Loving excitement as I do, I would
have enjoyed being here when the
shepherds came bursting through that
stable entrance, breathlessly telling the
startled couple that the angels had told
them this newborn child is truly the Son
of God! Having said that, they knelt and
worshiped the Christ. What a dramatic
scene of faith, of love, of worship! While
the faithless crowds snored the night
away, this handful of humble men en-
countered God incarnate and returned to
their sleep, watching with a song of eter-
nal hope in their hearts!
How silently, how silently the wondrous
gift is giv'n
So God imparts to human hearts the
blessings of His Heav'n.
No ear may hear His coming; but In
this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him
still, the dear Christ enters in.
Perhaps if I could stay in this stable for
an hour or two, I might also write a
Christmas carol. But now the tour group
is leaving; and so, with reluctant step, I
must follow.
Now the bus is winding up the ribbon of
road between you, "the City of David"
and Jerusalem, "the Holy City." I don't
feel _like engaging in idle chatter, but in
reflecting on what I've seen. Because of
you, Bethlehem, and your lowly stable
where my Savior came, I understand
more fully the greatest love story of all
time: "For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life" (John
3:16).
Naturally, such amazing love invites
my love in return. And so I say, with
Christina G. Rossetti:
What can I give Him, poor as I am
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a
lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my
part.
Yet what can I give Him Give my
heart.
Well, I must close my love letter to you
beautiful, bustling Bethlehem. Allow me
to say, "Thank you" for the tender, lov-
ing care you have shown the birthplace of
my Savior, for preserving the temporal
and eternal meaning of Christ's coming
to earth, for being uniquely chosen by
God to be the town .to which Mary and
Joseph had to travel ninety weary miles
because of a tax decree. Surely Micah
*as inspired when he wrote: "But thou,
Bethlehem Ephrata'', though thou be a
little among the thousands of Judah, yet
out of thee shall he come forth unto me
that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from
everlasting" (Micah 5:2).
This Christmas, I'll see you again, but
in my memory. And there will be a new
feeling in my voice as I join my, wife and
two daughters in singing:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to
us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in; be born
in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great
glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord
Emmanuel.
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