Believer

Raoul’s 2 Cents

Authentic Christmas

It’s beginning to look LESS like Christmas
Everywhere you go
Take a look at the COVID stats,
it’s rising once again
With health complaints and hospital lanes that grow

I have to admit that it’s beginning to look real weird even for me, a professional office cave-dweller. Christmas is my favorite time of the year so not to experience the hustle and bustle of shopping, partying and traveling for the first time in my life is going to be tough. We don’t have a single Christmas decor up. It’s just my wife and pets — why bother, right? A group of us were hoping to give a mini-Christmas concert but with the recent spike in infections, even that has been cancelled. We practiced several weekends for nothing!

But then I remembered the very first Christmas.

If you believe what is written in the Bible, you know that this baby Jesus (the only begotten son of the almighty God of the universe) abandoned a place of indescribable peace and beauty in order to become like one of us — a man susceptible to hunger, to cold, to temptation, and to ridicule. Instead of choosing rich and powerful well-connected parents, he chose a simple carpenter as a father and a very young mother (probably in her young teens). So insignificant were these newly weds that after they traveled some 20 km to a faraway town in Bethlehem, they could not find a room to rest. They hadn’t anticipated the throng of other travelers arriving at the same time to register for the census. The pregnant mother possibly pleaded not to take the journey because her time to deliver was so near but the law of the land forced the arduous trip. Unable to find decent shelter they found a manger …(a den for farm animals). The fragile baby Jesus, the new born King, started his human life wrapped up in rags and laid to rest inside a cattle’s feeding trough.  All of this to save people who don’t even realize they need saving.

And here we are; near the end of the infamous Covid year… locked up in our homes with our computers, online movies, a stockpile of food and we’re complaining about toilet paper and cancelled mini-concerts.

Be safe, be healthy, and remember: It’s a lot less commercialized Christmas but it’s a lot more authentic Christmas. TGIF people!

Raoul

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Peter Paul of S Pasadena, CA  for sharing these jokes.

Video: Amazing Goalie

Thanks to Maling of New Manila, Philippines

I shared this video before but when I watched it again, I couldn’t help laughing out loud. What dedication! What a trooper! What “bad luck”  just being in the right place at the right time.

Video: Crosswalk in Quebec

Thanks to Naomi of North Hollywood, CA who shared this innovative solution to slow down traffic at the crosswalk.

Video: Something’s Wrong With My Apple

Thanks to Art of Sierra Madre, CA
Dry British humor

Don’s Puns

Thanks to Don of Kelowna, BC who sent this pun

Parting Shots

Thanks to Ed of Studio City, CA

Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA

Thanks to Peter Paul of S Pasadena, CA