Find your meditation space, the center of your head and your grounding. Say hello to yourself as spirit, and yourself as body.
We know that the birth of Jesus was not really on December 25. December 25 was really chosen by a pope in the fourth century to celebrate this birthday, although it had not been celebrated as a holiday previously. It was an effort to bring together the birth of Christ with pagan holidays, such as the winter solstice celebration, the holiday of Saturn, the god of agriculture, and the birthday of Mithra, the god of the sun. This increased the possibility that people would replace pagan holidays with a Christian holiday, and for the most part, it worked.
What day Jesus was born is really a detail, not that important. There is even much controversy about many things about Jesus and his life, what he did or did not say, the veracity of the gospels, even how he died. There are even things in the Bible that contradict each other, and many inconsistencies. There is no controversy, however, about whether Jesus lived. We know that he did live, and that he was a teacher.
Jesus had an impact on the people around him.
Jesus had an impact on the people around him, and in the Bible they reported on their experience of that impact from various perspectives. Everyone, regardless of their individual perspectives and agendas – and they all had their own perspectives and their own agendas — felt that God met a human being through Jesus, and manifested through him. A human being also met God.
This experience, the awareness of the meeting of God and human, lifted people to a new level of consciousness. According to the Old Testament of the Bible, and according to those belief systems at that time, before the coming of Jesus, there had been a separation between God and people. God was an envious God, a jealous God, a protective God, an unknowing God, a vengeful God, a “thus saith the Lord” type of God. God was out there, looking down on the people, judging people. People felt judged, they were constantly doing “what was evil in the sight of God” and then trying to make up for it. There was a battle back and forth between God and the people.
According to the Old Testament, God was envious, jealous, and vengeful.
So for there to be a human person who met God and whom God also met in body was definitely a new consciousness level. Jesus lived a life beyond those traditional boundaries, he came out of competition with God. He took God out of the realm of an idol and into the realm of us as humans. It was ownership of God by Jesus and ownership of the human body and of the human experience by God. This is what we are celebrating in the birth of Jesus.
We don’t know whether the birth of Jesus actually happened the way it was related, but it is a wonderful story. It is a humble story, and reinforces the idea that God was totally relating to the human story. It is told in Luke 2:1-7.
Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger. In case you’ve forgotten, a stable is a place where horses and donkeys live and sleep, and it is dirty. There is dung on the floor. A manger is the trough the animals eat out of. It is dirty also. There would have been animals around, and animal noises. It would not have been cozy and warm. This is very earthy and world-like and unclean, not what we think of as a “spiritual experience”. This is truly God meeting humans in the human environment.
God is always within you.
Say hello to yourself as a human being, and to you meeting God and God meeting you in your space. As a human being, you have a body and all the body issues and body odors and body needs. God meets you there, and you can accept God into your space as you are. God is always within you. There is no need to change or be perfect or be something other than you are. There is acceptance from God, just as there was acceptance of a dirty stable and manger.
God’s message is that we are fully human and that we are ok as we are, and at the same time we are free of boundaries in our God experience within us. This is the message of Christmas and of the Christmas season. Please say hello to the God of your own Heart in your own space. Say hello to always knowing that the Presence of God is within you, that you can have communication with your God at any time or space or place, and that you cannot be separated. Be grateful for the God within you, and that you are also in God.
When you’re ready bend over and balance.
As always, thanks for supporting Psychic Horizons & the Church of Natural Grace with your sustainable giving! It truly makes a difference, both for us and for you.
Best regards,
Rev. Laura Hopper
Originally posted in December, 2019