{"id":2156,"date":"2018-12-23T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2018-12-22T21:30:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T02:30:34","slug":"what-is-your-christmas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/what-is-your-christmas-story\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is YOUR Christmas Story?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-html-block\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/4wis4-a15a75?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/4wis4-a15a75?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" height=\"122\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p dir=\"auto\">I<strong>n one of the Peanuts cartoons Charlie Brown\u2019s younger sister Sally is sitting in a beanbag chair watching television. Linus tries to read to her about the real meaning of Christmas from a scholar\u2019s point of view:<br \/><\/strong><br \/><em>\u201cListen to this, Sally. It says here the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, which is said to have been to all the world, probably just means the Roman Empire at the time. And listen to this. When we read that there was no room in the inn, the word \u201cinn\u201d is better translated \u2018guest room.\u2019 The intention of course is to contrast a place of human lodging with a place for feeding animals.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cNot only that, Sally, listen to this: &#8216;the name Bethlehem itself is interesting. It means \u2018house of bread\u2019 or it can mean \u2018house of fighting.\u2019 That\u2019s fascinating. What do you think, Sally?\u201d asks Linus.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>At this, Sally stands up, looks at Linus and says, <em><strong>\u201cI think if I don\u2019t get every single thing I want for Christmas this year, I\u2019m going to totally gross out.\u201d<br \/><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><u>It\u2019s clear that Sally wasn\u2019t ready for the Savior to come and live in her heart. Christmas obviously meant something entirely different to her<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How about you? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Has your preparation so far this Advent season been pretty much superficial? <\/strong>You\u2019re getting your shopping under control. Your calendar is full, but you\u2019re starting to get a handle on all of the busyness of the season. Now it\u2019s time to deal with the bigger issues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How\u2019s your relationship with God? How about your relationships with those closest to you?<\/strong> A voice of one calling in the wilderness, \u201c<em>Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>As we hear in today\u2019s Gospel: <em>\u201cBlessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled\u201d<\/em> (Luke 1:39-45).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; In one of the Peanuts cartoons Charlie Brown\u2019s younger sister Sally is sitting in a beanbag chair watching television. Linus tries to read to her about the real meaning of Christmas from a scholar\u2019s point of view:\u201cListen to this, Sally. It says here the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, which is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured.png",100,100,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543788187_featured-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/daily-treats\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Daily Treats<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"&nbsp; In one of the Peanuts cartoons Charlie Brown\u2019s younger sister Sally is sitting in a beanbag chair watching television. Linus tries to read to her about the real meaning of Christmas from a scholar\u2019s point of view:\u201cListen to this, Sally. It says here the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, which is&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}