Monthly Update November/December 2025
I recently have been thinking about writing a book on the advantages of being old. Completely at a loss for ideas I went to a friend who is 12 years my superior for his thoughts on this important subject. We sat in silence for some time, and then he muttered “free prescriptions” and “winter fuel payment.” Disappointed, I told him that I had been hoping for a comprehensive and detailed account, and left uninspired. The following day, my daughter came to see us and in conversation was troubled by their 15 year old son wanting a birthday party in the garden a fortnight hence. Her husband’s initial response had been to say he would to go on a cycling weekend with their younger son. And so my first real advantage of being old had come into being. “You didn’t have to say no to that unrealistic desire by your 15-year-old son about a party, in spite of his promise of no drugs and whatever else is standard practice for these events”.
It was certainly no party for Mary and Joseph when they arrived in Bethlehem to comply with the Roman census. Whether on donkey or on foot it was a full four-to-seven-day journey from their home in Nazareth. The town was packed and bustling with people renewing family acquaintances, so no room anywhere. Two isolated young people, fearful of the future and the part they were destined to play in God’s salvation plan for the world. And nowhere to stay, no comfort or support in the birth of their child, just, we read, the outbuildings where animals were kept, not necessarily dirty but probably not very clean.
I love the details of this story as told by gospel-writer Luke. He was a doctor and a clever man, and yet central to his writing is the account of the shepherds. Uneducated, not to be trusted or be a witness in court, far away from the noise of Bethlehem in fields watching their sheep, it is to them that the angels appear. Not just one or two angels but a whole army of them, enough to fill the sky, all because of this baby, Jesus. Then the shepherds receive the specific instructions to go to Bethlehem to find this new born child. So, it was the unexpected, the shepherds, who came to reassure Joseph and Mary that they were on track and all was actually well. For the shepherds………..well they would never stop talking about it because they found “It was just as the angel had said.”
Maybe that book idea of mine is pretty dull by comparison?