Christmas in the Holy Land

Here is a news article on Christmas in Bethlehem this year.  The AP reporters, Dalia Nammari and Tia Goldenberg, are Arab and Jewish (not my assumption, but the comment of another AP reporter).

The traditional birthplace of Jesus is celebrating its merriest Christmas in years, as tens of thousands of tourists thronged Bethlehem on Friday for the annual holiday festivities in this biblical West Bank town.

Officials said the turnout was shaping up to be the largest since 2000.  Unseasonably mild weather, a virtual halt in Israeli-Palestinian violence and a burgeoning economic revival in the West Bank all added to the holiday cheer.

By nightfall, a packed Manger Square was awash in red, blue, green and yellow Christmas lights.

This is a good news story.  Not a perfect story, but a good news story.

The EMail that forwarded this article included this:

So maybe this happy Christmas in Bethlehem is a byproduct of the latest peace process "misfire." Or maybe it's the noose around Gaza.

Or maybe the surge of pilgrims is due to the fact that this story has so little resonance on the world media stage, replaced by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, North Korea, and oh, remember that place called Iraq... so, unable to churn forth the once steady stream of scary headlines, that would-be pilgrims are unaware of the risks.

Yes, the world is a scary place.  My twenty-something granddaughter texted me last week about Korea and if it was a real threat to world peace.  That shows there is some value to the contentions in the world—I get contact with my granddaughter.

But, it shouldn't be so and the promise of Advent is that the King of Peace not only came, but that there is the hope of the Parousia, that He will return and bring final, lasting peace.  That is something to be happily anticipated.  And that is what Christmas is really about.

Regards  —  Cliff