'FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN'

The old priest rubbed his eyes. Maybe it was the smoke from the incense he had just lit. He looked again. A man was standing in front of him beside the incense altar!

' He noticed the man's clothing. It seemed to glow. And the man's face was glowing too! "Don't be afraid, Zacharias," said the being. "Your prayers have been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, is going to have a son. You'll name him John. "You'll both be very happy, and so will a lot of others when the boy is born. Because of this special commission, he will drink no wine. Instead, he'll be full of the Holy Spirit from birth.

"He'll be responsible for turning many Israelites to God. In the same way Elijah did, he'll turn the hearts of fathers to their children. Many who are disobedient will become righteous. A people will be made ready for God." "But... but my wife and I are too old to have a child," stammered Zacharias. "How do I know this will really happen?"

"I am Gabriel, who stands before God!" the being spoke emphatically. "God sent me to tell you this good news, and you don't believe it. So from now on until these things happen----and they WILL happen----you won't be able to talk."

Outside, the crowd was growing uneasy as they waited for Zacharias to emerge from the holy place. Finally against one of the pillars. Zacharias' mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. "

He's lost his voice," someone whispered.

Now Zacharias was excitedly motioning toward the holy place. "What is it?" a younger priest asked. He looked closely at Zacharias, whose eyes were wide with fear. "What did you see in there?" "A vision! He's seen a vision!" someone in the crowd shouted. But Zacharias didn't answer. He had stopped motioning now, and was sitting on the steps, staring into space.

Elizabeth, after two months, knew for sure. She could feel changes taking place in her body. White haired Elizabeth, who had gone through her long life without knowing the joys of motherhood, was pregnant.

Mary, the daughter of Heli, sat in the courtyard of her father's home in Nazareth, grinding barely. In a few months, she thought, I'll be doing this same thing, only in the home of Joseph. Mary's parents had arranged for her marriage to Joseph several years earlier, and she found herself looking forward to it.

As she worked, she saw out of the corner of her eye that a man was quietly standing in the courtyard. She didn't recognize him, but thought he might be one of her father's business acquaintances. "Congratulations!" said the man. "You have been selected! God is with you!"

Mary stared at the stranger. What was he talking about? Suddenly she felt very uneasy. "Don't be afraid, Mary. God has chosen you to give birth to a child, whom you'll name him Jesus. God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he'll be the King of Israel forever." "But I'm not married yet. I don't understand."

"The Holy Spirit----the power of God----will give you this child, who will actually be the Son of God. And if this seems incredible, your cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant, just as I told Zacharias. No word from God is powerless." Now Mary understood. This was Gabriel's face, and suddenly he was gone.

Mary wasted no time in travelling to Judea to see Zacharias and Elizabeth. Immediately, Elizabeth understood what happened to Mary, and they both thanked God for what he was doing through them. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. When Elizabeth gave birth to a son, the relatives wanted to name him Zacharias, after his father. But Elizabeth wanted to name him John.

"No one in this family has ever been named John," protested one of Elizabeth's nephews. "Zacharias, still mute, could only write. The relatives crowded around. "His name is John," wrote Zacharias. And then Zacharias opened his mouth and spoke for the first time in more than nine months, thanking God for his new son.

News of these events spread rapidly though that part of the country. Before long, a lot of people were wondering exactly what John was destined to be. Zacharias answered that John would be a prophet who would prepare people for the arrival of God, and event that was shortly to occur.

Joseph lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He couldn't understand it. He had known Mary for years, and she had always been a person of the highest moral standards. And now, with their wedding so near, she was pregnant! Was there a part of her character she had kept hidden from him all this time? In any case, he didn't want to become a big scandal. He would dissolve their engagement as quietly as possible.

With this thought, Joseph fell asleep. "Joseph!" came a deep voice. "Descendant of David!" Joseph sat up. A man standing at the foot of his bed. The man's skin and clothing seemed to radiate light, even with no other light in the room. "Don't be afraid to wed Mary. The baby she's carrying was put there by the Holy Spirit. When he's born, you'll name him Jesus, or 'savior,' because he'll save his people from sin. God predicted this through the prophet Isaiah, who said that a virgin would give birth to a child named Immanuel, or 'God with us'."

Joseph looked around. No one else was in the room. Was it a dream? One way or the other, Joseph decided it must have been from God. He would go ahead with his marriage.

The Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, had ordered a census and taxation throughout the empire. In Judea, every family was required to return to the city of their ancestry. Joseph, a descendant of David, would have returned to Bethlehem, about 75 miles by way of the Jordan Valley. The early autumn trip took Joseph and Mary about a week, going slowly because of Mary's pregnancy.

When they arrived in Bethlehem, where Joseph had arranged to stay, the place was crowded with other visitors. The small, upstairs guest room was full, so Joseph and Mary were put in a room next to the central courtyard were common in Middle Eastern houses of that time. Several days later, Mary gave birth to a son. The other women helped her wrap the baby in a blanket. For a makeshift cradle, they took a small feeding trough used for the domestic animals in the courtyard, clean it, packed it with fresh straw and covered it with a piece of cloth.

Joseph and Mary thanked God that their baby seemed perfectly heathy and normal. They remembered their encounters with the angels many months before.

Out in the countryside, not far from Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were camping. Their flocks had gone to sleep for the night, and their campfire was beginning to die out. Two shepherds were keeping the others awake with a political discussion. "And Herod is just a Roman puppet. I don't see any end to Roman control in this country."

"But you're forgetting the prophecies about the Messiah, who will free us from the Romans. If ever there were a time when we needed him, it's now." Suddenly they were aware of light coming from somewhere. They looked at the fire. The flames had died out, yet things were getting brighter all around.

Someone gasped. A man was standing behind them, and his clothes and skin were glowing. The shepherds began to shake with fright. "Don't be afraid!" the stranger said. "I've got some great news, which will make everyone very happy! Today in David's city someone was born who will rescue you----the Messiah. Look for this: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a feeding trough."

As he finished talking, the hill behind him lit up with thousands of people, who shouted in unison: "Glory to God in heaven! And peace to men on earth who please God!" Then, as the shepherds stared in astonishment, the whole group of what were apparently angels rose up into the night for a while. Then the first shepherd cleared his throat.

"Well, I suppose there could be something to this Messiah stuff after all." Mary and the baby were resting peacefully. Joseph and the other visitors were about to snuff out the lamps for the evening when three came a loud knocking on the courtyard gate. "Who could that be this late at night?" asked Joseph, as he removed the bar from the gate.

The gate was opened to reveal a small group of men eagerly peering into the courtyard. "Can we help you?" Joseph asked. "They told us up the street that there had been a birth here. Can we see the baby?" asked one of the men. Another man began to point excitedly. "I see him! There he is!"

"Hey! What's this all about?" demanded Joseph. The group quieted down. Then one of the shepherds began to explain what they'd seen and heard earlier that night. Joseph and Mary simply looked at each other, and then at the baby.

On the eighth day the baby was circumcised. At that time his parents officially named him Jesus, as the angel had told them to. Forty days later, Joseph and Mary made the six-mile trip from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to present the child to God at the Temple, since Jesus was a firstborn boy (Exodus 13:2, 15, Leviticus 12).

As they approached the east gate of the Temple court, where the priest would receive their offering they noticed an old man was smiling at them. But his main interest seemed to be their son. "Thank God!" he said happily, and took the child in his arms.

Then the man looked into the sky. "Now you can let me die peacefully, Lord. I've seen the Savior you've prepared for everyone----a light for the Gentiles, and the glory of your people, Israel!" Joseph and Mary were startled at this. Then the old man gently handed back the baby to Mary and looked at her with a more serious expression.

"Many Israelites will rise and many will fall because of your son. He will become the very focus of controversy, and you'll feel anguish like a sword piercing you. But the deepest motives of many people will be brought out in the open." They would find out this man's name was Simeon, and that God had promised him he would see the Messiah before he died. God's Spirit had guided Simeon to the Temple that day to see Jesus.

While Joseph and Mary were wondering what Simeon meant by all those things, a very old woman approached them. "Thank God for this child!" she said loudly. Then she announced, "This child has been sent to rescue Israel!" "Who is this woman?" Joseph quietly asked a man standing next to him.

"She's Anna. A prophetess, some say. Her husband died 84 years ago. She married to him for seven years, so that would put her well over a hundred. She spends all her time here at the Temple praying and fasting. Though Joseph and Mary had been told how great their son was going to become, they were till amazed at these happenings.

A few hundred miles to the east of Jerusalem, beyond Persia, lay a vast area inhabited by, among others, the descendants of the northern 10 tribes of Israel, who had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians 700 years earlier. Sages from these tribes had read the Hebrew Scriptures, and understood that a great King was prophesied to rule over all of Israel, uniting all 12 tribes.

About the same time Christ was born, there appeared a new star in the night sky. Some of these wise men saw it in the east, and rightly concluded it was a sign from God that the great King of Israel had been born. They set out on the long trip to Judea to pay their respects to the King.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, the men assumed everyone would know about the birth of their future King. As they asked around, an official of King Herod happened to overhear them. "What do you mean?" the official asked. "Herod is king here. Is a new son born to Herod?"

"No," replied one of the wise men. "We are talking about the one you call the Messiah in the Hebrew language or, in Greek, the Christ. We've seen his star and we are certain he is born." Word of this spread quickly throughout Jerusalem. Before long the city was rife with rumors that King Herod was about to be deposed by another monarch. Needless to say, this disturbed King Herod, an Idumean or Edomite, whom the Romans had installed to govern the Jews.

From the priests and biblical scholars, Herod learned that the Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. Then he sent for the wise men. "This is indeed wonderful news!" Herod told the wise men. "When did you first see this star?"

"Several months ago," answered one of the men. "Ah, then you will be looking for an infant. My scholars tell me you should look in Bethlehem. When you find him, send word, and I will come and pay my respects." That evening the wise men headed down the road to Bethlehem. The star they had seen in the east was visible again. When they finally arrived in the city, the star, much to their astonishment, hovered over one of the houses.

Joseph and Mary were surprised to see foreigners at the door, and even more surprised when they offered gifts to their son, and insisted he was to become a great king. The next day, the wise men began the journey back to their own country. But they didn't send word to Herod, because God Had warned them in a dream against doing that.

The next night, Joseph also had a dream. At the foot of his bed stood the same angel who had spoken to him many months earlier.

"You must get up and leave right now!" ordered the angel. "You must go to Egypt and stay there until I tell you to return. Otherwise Herod will kill the child."