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Just imagine that first Christmas.  No Christmas trees or Santas, no lights, lines, or ornaments, No Christmas cards, bell-ringers or stockings hung by the chimney with care. If we were there that first Christmas eve, we would gaze upon 2 poor homeless people, unmarried, spending the night in a lean-to shed attached to the back of an adobe house.  We'd see a young teenage girl going through the  agony and mess of childbirth...no family gathering.  No presents under the tree. No peace.  Bethlehem at this time was bedlam not peaceful.  Filled to overflowing with people from around the country, coming to Bethlehem to be registered and taxed by the enemy-occupying Rome. 

And yet later that night the announcement would come of "good news of great joy to all people." That's the Bethlehem dream, "good news of great joy for all people." How will we celebrate that...this Christmas?