The First Christmas, by Lou Beard.

In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus was with God, as part of God, right from the beginning. At Christmas we celebrate the time when Jesus came to earth as a baby. He came to earth to give each of us the chance to become children of God, and to live with him for all eternity.
Many people didn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah, but the scriptures in the Old Testament had pointed to his coming from the beginning. Hundreds of years before the first Christmas, several prophets foretold the birth of Jesus. They told of where he would be born:
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
How he would be conceived:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
And that the Messiah would be a descendant of King David:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely, and do what is just and right in the land.”
Everyone familiar with the Jewish scriptures should have known that Jesus was the Messiah, but they probably expected him to arrive with a little more ceremony than he did. It’s easy to miss what’s going on when it doesn’t happen in the way we expect it to.
There was a Priest named Zechariah who was married to Elizabeth, who was a relative of Mary. Zechariah and Elizabeth had not been able to have children and were now quite old. One day when Zechariah was in the temple, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. He was afraid.
But the angel said to him, “do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of The Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before he is born.”
The angel went on to say that John would bring many people from Israel back to the Lord their God, and that he would go ahead to prepare a way for The Lord.
Elizabeth did conceive, and it was when she was six months pregnant that the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a virgin, who was engaged to be married to Joseph. Mary too was afraid at the sudden appearance of the angel, but he reassured her:
“Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever, his kingdom will never end.”
Mary asked the angel how it was possible, as she’d not yet known a man in that way. The angel told her that it would be by the Holy Spirit and that the child would be called the Son of God. He went on to tell her that Elizabeth was now expecting a baby in her old age. Mary could have not possibly understood all the future had in store for her, but she trusted God and happily accepted all the angel had told her.
Mary went to visit Elizabeth and they both praised God and exclaimed over the wonderful things he was doing in their lives.
When the time came for Elizabeth to have her baby, everyone expected them to name him after his father, but both Elizabeth and Zechariah told them that he was to be called John.
When Joseph found out that Mary, whom he was engaged to, was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, he was greatly troubled. He was a good man and didn’t want her to be publicly disgraced, so decided to break things off quietly. Things would be hard enough for her when everyone found out she was pregnant without being married. But an Angel of The Lord appeared to him in a dream and said:
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what The Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,” which means God with us.
When Joseph woke up, he did as The Lord had told him. He took Mary home, but they did not live as husband and wife until after Jesus was born.
We don’t know how people treated them. They may well have been accused of doing things they hadn’t done. After all, the angel only visited Mary and Joseph, not everyone else who knew them. I’m sure that some people were quick to judge, without knowing all the facts. But Mary and Joseph trusted God.
Shortly before Mary was due to have her baby, a census was ordered and everyone had to go to their own town to register. Joseph took Mary from Nazareth in Galilee, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he was a descendant of David.
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her first-born, a son. She wrapped him in cloths, and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
We often think of Jesus being born in a stable, but a stable then was likely to be more of a cave, or a place underneath a house where the animals slept. The town was overcrowded, so likely the place where Jesus was born was overcrowded with animals and all that goes with them. The kind of place most of us wouldn’t even want to enter, let alone bring a child into the world.
There were shepherds living in the fields nearby. Dirty, smelly shepherds whom most people would have avoided. They were watching their sheep one night, when an Angel of The Lord appeared to them and the Glory of The Lord shone around them. As you can imagine, they were terrified! But as always, the angel reassured them, saying:
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy, that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a saviour has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest heaven! And on earth, peace to those on whom his favour rests.”
Once the angels had left them, the shepherds knew that they must go to see all the Angel had told them. They hurried off to Bethlehem and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they left, they told everyone what they had seen. They were all amazed. The shepherds returned to their sheep, praising God.
Some time later, some men from the east, who studied the stars, went to Jerusalem to the palace of King Herod, to ask where the king of the Jews had been born, as they had watched his star rise, and had come to worship him. King Herod was not happy. He didn’t want some other king taking his place! So he called together those who studied the scriptures, to ask them where the Messiah was to be born.
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”
Herod was not a nice man, so he found out exactly when the star had appeared. He sent the men off to Bethlehem to find the child and asked them to let him know where the child was, pretending that he wanted to go and worship him. So the men went on their way, still following the star, which led them right to where Jesus was. They Worshipped Jesus and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they went back to their own country another way. Herod wasn’t about to give up easily, so an angel spoke to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, as Herod was going to try to find Jesus to kill him. Joseph was obedient and did exactly as he was told, taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt to safety.