Merrrrry Christmas!

Two thousand years ago, a child who was the living embodiment of love, compassion and forgiveness, came to earth to save humankind.

And what happens? Shortly after he’s born, he and his family are forced to run like the Charles Dickens from a corrupt king.

Herod was corrupt, but he wasn’t stupid. He heard about the impending birth of the "King of the Jews," and he knew that if left unchecked, this Christ-child could threaten his power.

He didn’t know the half of it.

As momentous as Our Savior’s birth was, he was born in a stable, the poorest of the poor, his value beyond measure.

I wonder sometimes how the story would have read had the people of the time known then what we know now. I imagine that someone probably would have convinced Mary and Joseph to hire a PR firm, which then would have made his arrival a Pay-Per-View event, complete with a long line of souvenirs and a video game tie-in. Suddenly a stable under a star doesn’t sound so bad.

The words of the prophets described Christ’s birth years before it occurred. Later on, God announced via a blaring of trumpets by a flock of angels that his son was to be born. (From that point on, he left it up to his son to get the word out. Make a few miracles, raise a few people from the dead, and word will spread — that was God’s thinking, and he was right. God usually is. But that goes without saying.)

The words of the prophets weren’t lost on the Three Wise Men, who, on the day prescribed, went to King Herod inquiring about the child, assuming Herod was fine with the whole "King of the Jews" thing. This was back when the Three Wise Men were known simply as Kings Phil, Mike and Roy.

Herod, pretending to be filled with the Christmas spirit, ordered the magi to report back to him with the "joyful news" after they found the child-king. Find Jesus they did, after which "they prostrated themselves and did homage to him." Then came to the three a message in a dream: "Herod’s a creep." They heeded the message and took a different exit off the highway to get home and did not report back to Herod. Hence forth, Phil, Mike and Roy were known as the Three Wise Men (even though they should have realized that the baby Jesus would have rather had a baby rattle than gold, frankincense, or myrrh).

Sadly, soon after Christ’s birth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced to flee. Mary must have been awfully tired at this point, and Joseph probably was quite stressed out. Fleeing was the last thing they felt like doing. Getting a hotel room, having a good meal, sure. But fleeing?

Indeed, Christ didn’t have to flee. None of them had to. He could have raised his little pinky finger, and his father in heaven would have sent down a vast army of really ticked-off angels to squash Herod in one fell swoop. But that wasn’t the style of God Made Man.

In fact, Christ could have ended the whole thing right there and then with one, tiny pinprick of his blood — one tiny drop to destroy death for humanity. But Christ, being the incredibly great guy that he is, wanted to show humankind just how very much he loves them. He wanted to be able to say, "See how much I have suffered for your sins? I did so because I love you. And if I love you that much, then what do you have to fear?"

Two-thousand years have passed, and, as you may have heard, that little Christ-child went on to earn quite a lot of notoriety, what with his lessons of love, and with him dying on the cross so we can all be forgiven and live eternally with him in heaven and all.

And what about that "Herod" character? What did he accomplish? Well, some say he invented the potato peeler, but even that is up for debate. The last time he was seen, he was working in a sandal shop and had changed his name to Gary.

During his life on earth, Jesus imparted many lessons, most of which had to do with devotion to God and each other — sharing, serving, forgiving – basically being nice to each other. And he taught about how it’s wrong to lie, steal, kill, and basically be mean to each other.

While our track record these past 2,000 years hasn’t been the best, Christ’s birth reminds us that there is always hope -- yes, even for the modern-day Herods of the world.

Here’s hoping you all have a very blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with joy and laughter.