Far Far Away on Judea's Plains

   First of all, let  me set the record straight--there are no plains in Judea. The land is actually known as the "Judean Hills." I have pictures--but I can't upload them at this time. Since my last post was brief, I am including a piece of a report I had to write:

         As I had feared/suspected, the" little town of Bethlehem" was as full of an ambivalent mix of turmoil, pain, history, and magic as is Jerusalem. Perhaps this is because the cities are so close together—a 20 minute bus ride is all it takes to get from "Royal David's City" to his capital. My comment may be overdramatic, but everything was a strange mix of the peaceful Christmas or Palestinian message and the conflict.

• The separation wall is sterile cement on one side, but the other side is covered with lovely, politically-charged graffiti.
• The large "countdown to Christmas" sign in Manger Square is posted on a building next to a large mosque, complete with minaret.  
• The Nativity scene I purchased features a happy Holy Family on one side, and on the other, a separation wall with Wise Men trying to get in.
• My picture with the large Christmas tree in Manger Square features several rifle-wielding soldiers.
• A week before Christmas, I spent the day in Bethlehem and--I am actually not supposed to disclose full details until I return to the US. Remind me then.

           Yet, I believe that this conflict and contrast perhaps provides a more apt Christmas message than Santa Claus and families gathering for food, or even than sharing and generosity. After all, "when Joseph went to Bethlehem," the land was disputed land. There were conquerors and soldiers and weapons, radicals and zealots and religious extremists then, too. To cap it all off, it was tax season!

    And the government was getting in the way of life then as now—yesterday, we heard from a woman whose home is walled on three sides by the new wall. She once lived on Main Street, but it has now become a secluded ghost town. She waited out 40 days of shelling inside her home with her 5 children, but even when the Intifada stopped, her husband's business (he was a car mechanic) crashed. Now, she makes handicrafts to survive and support her family. (She actually makes lovely blessing gowns, among other things. If you would like to support her, order online at www.baptismgarment.com).

        Joseph was very likely a stonecutter, called upon to move to Severus to help build the new city. He was a newlywed, not a wealthy man, and he had to take his wife far away from her friends and family, to have her child in a strange land in a dark cave inhabited by sheep because Caesar Augustus said so. The Holy Land has not changed all that much—people still knock down other people's houses and build on top of them using the rubble. And the people still need "a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."