{"id":22113,"date":"2020-12-11T21:30:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T05:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/?p=22113"},"modified":"2020-12-15T09:11:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T17:11:39","slug":"believer-authentic-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelingboy.com\/travel\/believer-authentic-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Believer"},"content":{"rendered":"
Raoul’s 2 Cents<\/h5>\n

Authentic Christmas<\/span><\/h2>\n

It’s beginning to look LESS like Christmas<\/em>
\nEverywhere you go<\/em>
\nTake a look at the COVID stats,<\/em>
\nit’s rising once again<\/em>
\nWith health complaints and hospital lanes that grow<\/em><\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

But then I remembered the very first Christmas.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0All of this to save people who don\u2019t even realize they need saving.<\/p>\n

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Image used under license from Shutterstock.com<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Be safe, be healthy, and remember: It’s a lot less\u00a0commercialized Christmas\u00a0<\/strong>but it’s a lot more\u00a0authentic Christmas<\/strong>. TGIF people!<\/p>\n

Raoul<\/p>\n

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Image used under license from Shutterstock.com<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

Joke of the Week<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Thanks to Peter Paul of S Pasadena, CA \u00a0for sharing these jokes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TGIF<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Video: Amazing Goalie<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to Maling of New Manila, Philippines<\/p>\n

I shared this video before but when I watched it again, I couldn’t help laughing out loud.\u00a0What dedication! What a trooper! What “bad luck”\u00a0 just being in the right place at the right time.<\/em><\/p>\n