News "Real"

As seen in the "The Heartbeat" and published in the Hot Springs Village Voice

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Many of us can remember going to the movies and sitting through a couple of pre-movie productions. Depending on the genre of the movie, if it was a comedy, we saw a cartoon or two. If the movie was a drama, more than likely we sat through a newsreel. During the 1940s and ‘50s the newsreel was the prime method of delivering the news about the war, national and global events. Now we get such information from the evening news, 24-hours news stations, and many of us get the “pop-up” news alerts on our smart phones. We are inundated with news stories being push at us from all avenues. Sometimes I wish they would show a few cartoons before they aired the news story every evening!!

We need to laugh more, and the above premise of cartoons before the news may not be a bad thing. It makes me think back to the birth of Jesus and the methodology with which the news was spread. First, it was a visit to a devout young woman, working in the home carrying out all of her duties, including the studying of the Tora, the books of Wisdom, and the prophets, all the while teaching them to the younger children. Then came a visit from an angel and not just any angel. This was the Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel is bringer of news from the “Editor-in-Chief,” – God. She learned of the news about her future son.

Then came a visit to a lowly carpenter who was engaged to the young woman. “Do not be afraid to take her as your wife” the angel told him. This too was a direct message from God and is believed to have been carried to the carpenter by Gabriel.

Then the message was carried to the lowly shepherds in the fields outside the City of David. Gabriel shined with the glory of God. The message: “Don’t be afraid!” He told them where to find the Christ-child. They went and saw and told the young woman and the carpenter all they had seen and were told. The young mother pondered in her heart what the angel had told her, what her husband-to-be had told her, and what the shepherds had told her.

If we could see all of these events before watching a movie it wouldn’t be a standard newsreel, but a glorious “News-Real!” The radiance of the messenger shined on all of them, but the source was not his own. He had been in the presence of God. This season let us all spend as much time as we can with God, and in doing so we too will shine the radiance of our Heavenly Father as we tell the Real Good News to the world – Christ is born!