Have you ever really given much thought to the Nativity? I am not sure I have. Sitting in the cold one year watching our church’s living nativity started me thinking…..
How come Miriam, Jesus’ mother’s real name in Aramaic, was changed to Mary? Miriam is certainly an ancient and oft times used name and there are plenty of them in the New Testament – since Mary did not exist as a name. And yet this Miriam’s name was changed to Mary – perhaps to set her apart from the rest of the Miriam’s? Is not this sort of saying Queen Elizabeth’s name is really Bob, because we do not want to confuse her with Elizabeth the First or because we want a name to use for her that is more recognizable? “Uh, say, Queen Bob, did Charles really hire…..?” Yah, you get the point – and do not even start me on the Greek change with yielded the name of ‘Jesus’. Of course, many argue that the New Testament was all in Greek so Jesus would be correct, while his Hebrew name would not.
How much could Miriam have weighed? As I sat there watching this very pregnant young mother with the donkey, I found myself thinking. If a donkey could carry 100 pounds and the average woman gains maybe 30 pounds in pregnancy (or more!), then Mary would have to have weighed about 70 pounds before pregnancy. Mighty tiny even for Nicole Richie. Even my smallest daughter at 15 weighed in at 115! Could a donkey have carried 145 pounds from Nazareth to Bethlehem? They are not that large of an animal, not like a horse or even a mule. (If you know the answer, I would love to solve this one!) I would guess the donkey I was watching had about 160 pounds to carry the short distance through the church parking lot and did not appear uncomfortable. Might be a bit different across several miles and several days…..
In spite of all of our depictions of a stable being a timber roofed structure, was it? As best I have been able to research, it may have been a cave – but the local caves are mighty small if you are planning on housing anything inside of them. There are the remains of several rock holding pens in the area from unknown ancient times. It is interesting to think that Miriam could have been forced to give birth under the stars, amongst a bunch of animals. Not exactly sanitary and probably not exactly easy on a teenage girl having her first child. I wonder if there was even a midwife available. No matter how it worked out – poor Joseph!
Where was Satan while all of this was going on 2010+ years ago? He (it) had dedicated much effort to destroying mankind through the years and yet is conspicuously absent from the most important birth on Earth! Could it be that the multitudes in heaven the shepherds saw were actually there to protect the birth, baby and mother from Satan and/or his evil allies?
Of course no one knows anything about the wise men. There could have been twenty of them! But, the Roman Catholics decided on three and even gave them names. But, they did bring three gifts. They could have come from Persia or even further to the east or as near as Qumran, a hop skip and a jump across the Judean Mountains. It would be almost with a snide sort of justice if it were from Qumran – the community of religiously exiled Jews of that day. And, God does have a sense of humor.
Just some things that popped into my mind as I sat there and thought how wonderful it was for this youth group to provide such a witness to the community.
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