A COVID Christmas

There they were on that first Christmas. Far from home without other family or relatives able to join them. They wished they had known someone in Bethlehem. Maybe then they would have had a place to stay indoors, even if it was just a corner of floor on which to lay, protected from the elements. Instead, they had to make do with a stable used to keep animals, with all the odors that came with it, and a feedbox for animals being the first baby basinet.

There was no pandemic to fear for Mary and Joseph. But yet they experienced what many might at Christmas 2020 this year – the quiet of being alone.

Certainly, nine months earlier, Mary had experienced something miraculous – the appearance of the angel Gabriel, who had shared, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” Luke 1:30-33.

Likewise, Joseph had been visited by the angel of the Lord in a dream saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” Matthew 1:20-21.

But since then, the Lord had been quiet. Even that night, as Mary gave birth without the help of midwife or doctor, there was no visit by an angel at that stable. There was no miraculous appearance of a pan of hot water and a warm blanket. There was only this first-time mother and Joseph, going through a live birth experience all on their own. Being in that day and time, this couple would have likely witnessed other home births in Nazareth. But all those had happened with the help of extended family and friends. Not so for Mary and Joseph that evening.

Sure, the shepherds out on the fields got an angel! But all Mary and Joseph received was a shepherd.

No royal representative from Caesar Augustus. Not even the mayor—if this small town of Bethlehem had someone like that—came to the stable. Wise men would arrive later, when they had moved to a house. But on that first Christmas, the only visitors were some common shepherds, who shared second-hand knowledge of what they had seen and heard.

There together, Mary and Joseph and shepherds, might have been left to wonder, “Lord if this Child is indeed the long-promised Savior of the world, shouldn’t there be better accommodations? Shouldn’t there be a bit more to life than this?”

But no. Straw was the bedding and a single homemade blanket that Joseph and Mary had brought with them was it. No pillows. No hot tea or coffee. No promise of a hot breakfast in the morning.

There was no pandemic that first Christmas. But along with the gift of His Son, God had given the gift of relative quiet. And the lack of distractions was a gift for Mary – who saw it as an opportunity to treasure all these things, and ponder them in her heart.

Christmas 2020 may be quieter than normal for many of us this year. For some, it may even be lacking family members who were present last year.

Dr. Samuel Johnson, who put together our first English dictionary, said, “Most people spend their entire lives going busily from one activity to another, trying to avoid thinking about their own mortality.” Sad, isn’t it? We give little thought to the one truth we should, that despite all the advances of modern medicine and the inventions of Pfizer and Moderna, the death rate remains at one per person.

Maybe the lesser activities and distractions of Christmas 2020 give us the opportunity to ponder how this Child was able to do something that no vaccine will ever be able to do… removing the fear of death and giving the promise of eternal life, so that we can truly live.

“For all this had taken place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet Isaiah some 600 years earlier, ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’” Matthew 1:22-23.

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