Were You Born in a Barn?

Note:   This will be my last blog for 2018.  Thank you.

For almost the first two decades of my life,   I lived in a home without air conditioning.    That could be challenging at times in the hot, humid summers of the Carolinas.     I was in college before our family home even had window air conditioning.    We were dependent on opening windows and doors hoping that a breeze might make a visit.       Sometimes in my eagerness to go outside and play with my brother or neighborhood friends,  I would fail to close the screen door of our home.    When that  would be the case,  Mom would chide me saying to me,   “Boy, were you born in a barn?”

I have visited a few barns in my days.   None of them had screen doors.  All of them had large doors that were usually wide and opened when I visited them.    The barn would be the place where horses or other livestock would be kept along with farm supplies.     If Mom were living today,  I could answer her comment “Boy, were you born in a barn?” by saying to her,  “No, Mom.   I was not born in a barn but I follow One who was born in a barn.” 

  

More than likely,  Mom would have had mixed reactions to such a comment.   I can hear her now saying as she would now and then,  “Don’t sass me, boy.”     She would think that I was making a wise crack.  Yet, when she got to thinking about it she also would be proud that I was a follower of the One who was born in the barn, Jesus Christ.       Though there is nothing in the life of Jesus that gives us any indication that he or his family were farmers, they certainly lived in an agrarian society.   Jesus uses images of that society like a person sowing seeds… a sheep being lost… and the like.    Jesus knew about things that many rural people in our day know much about.    In these Advent and Christmas days, let us rejoice that the One named Christ Jesus was born not only in a barn, but he waits to be born in the hearts of all who welcome him.   Have a joy-filled week and merry Christmas.- Pastor Randy L. Wall

Prayer:    O God,  you became the word made flesh full of grace and truth in Christ Jesus.  Come among us in these days and be born in our lives.  Amen.