Bethlehem...A Personal Christmas.

With just 10 days to go before Christmas, the excitement and pressure is growing! But if you're like me, over the years the excitement has changed. It has changed steadily from a focus on the gifts that are exchanged to the people that bring meaning and joy to life. In other words, Christmas is getting more personal.

I wonder if this is why the town of Bethlehem was chosen by God to be the birthplace of Jesus. Jerusalem, Rome or Athens would have been more notable places because of their role in world affairs. Why wouldn't the World-Changer come from a town with more notariety?  Maybe Bethlehem is among the first indications of how personal Christmas is supposed to be!  Maybe the reason for Bethlehem was to ensure that the Christ of God would be someone to whom even a commom person could relate--you know, those of us not born into royalty, riches, celebrity, power or influence!

Or, given that Bethlehem means "house of bread," I wonder if Bethlehem was God's choice in order to indicate that his Christ would satisfy our most basic hunger. After all, the One born in Bethlehem's "house of bread" later called himself "the bread of life" (John 6:35). A remarkably intentional connection, don't you think?

Or, I wonder if maybe Bethlehem might have been chosen to testify that we individually must choose the One born there. You can't eat for another person. Even if we eat from the same loaf of bread we each eat for ourselves (1 Cor. 10:17).

By the way, I still like getting and giving gifts :-) but I think there's more...a whole lot more...that is worthy of our excitement and attention. Like the "bread of life" that came from the "house of bread."

Merry Christmas!