{"id":108403,"date":"2024-12-25T16:34:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T23:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=108403"},"modified":"2024-12-25T16:34:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T23:34:27","slug":"at-bethlehem-i-had-my-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/12\/at-bethlehem-i-had-my-birth.html","title":{"rendered":"“At Bethlehem I had my birth.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all, Merry Christmas to all! \u00a0I hope that you\u2019ve had a joyous Christmas season and that you will enjoy this day to the full with family and friends and food and music and whatever else will make for a very satisfying and memorable time.<\/p>\n

\"Hughes<\/a>
Arthur Hughes, \u201cThe Nativity\u201d (1858)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday last, Meridian Magazine<\/em> republished a Christmas-themed column that my late and still sorely missed friend Bill Hamblin and I originally wrote for the 11 December 2015 edition of the Deseret News<\/em>. \u00a0Perhaps you\u2019ll enjoy it or gain something from it: \u00a0\u201cThe Nativity, According to Luke.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are a few of the other Christmas-related columns that I wrote for the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cDefending the faith: Christmas celebrates part of divine plan\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas in the Holy Land \u2014 somber, yet triumphant\u201d<\/a> (16 December 2010)<\/p>\n

\u201cPure love led Christ to descend the courts of glory\u201d<\/a> (22 December 2011)<\/p>\n

And here are three that I wrote for Meridian Magazine<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day\u201d: How Christ Transforms Darkness into Light\u201d<\/a> (11 December 2018)<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas Beyond Christendom\u201d<\/a> (19 December 2023)<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas and a Condescending God\u201d<\/a> (28 December 2021)<\/p>\n

Well, I was intending to gather quite a few more of these. \u00a0But it turns out that \u2014 certainly for a tech-illiterate person such as I (and I suspect that I\u2019m not entirely alone in my computer-clumsiness), and perhaps inescapably \u2014 the process of locating my past columns is very cumbersome, inefficient, and time-consuming.<\/p>\n

Which raises a question: \u00a0I\u2019ve thought for years about trying to gather past columns and writings of mine (and other things, such as speaking engagements and the like) onto a personal website. \u00a0(I\u2019ve never had one. \u00a0And I don\u2019t really know how to create<\/em> one.) \u00a0I simply have no idea whether there would be even the slightest interest in such a thing beyond myself and perhaps my pet tortoise, who depends upon me for his lettuce and cantaloupe and winter lodgings.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An aerial view of the Bountiful Utah Temple
(LDS Media Library), very near the place where I\u2019m currently typing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spent last evening with my wife\u2019s extended family up in Davis County, including a separate visit with her father, who will turn ninety-eight early next week. \u00a0He was doing reasonably well and living on his own (across from the parking structure for the Bountiful Utah Temple) until a few months ago, but his health has now taken a distinct turn for the worse and he\u2019s living in a care facility.<\/p>\n

Driving back down to Utah Valley, we took our incredibly cute five-year-old granddaughter to what I think is called Orem City Center Park, which is located between Center Street and First North, to the east of the Orem Public Library.<\/p>\n

It is a place of sheer wonder. \u00a0The lighting of the trees is absolutely spectacular, and our granddaughter ran about in rapturous delight among them until we told her that it was simply too late and too cold and that we needed to get her home.<\/p>\n

The brilliant and varied lighting of the trees reminded me of the indescribable colors to which many accounts of near-death experiences refer. \u00a0Here are a couple of short notes that I\u2019ve written on that subject:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven Some Colors I\u2019d Never Seen Before\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cColors That Don\u2019t Exist on Earth: Insights into the Way the Skies in Heaven Look\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the area and you have children, please take them, while you can, to see these lights (and to get out and wander and wonder among them) after dark and before they\u2019re removed with the end of the holidays.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A large copy of Brian Kershisnik\u2019s \u201cNativity\u201d hangs in my living room all year round. (I hope that he won\u2019t mind my sharing it here.) \u00a0I love the joyous fascination of the angels with the newborn Redeemer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a comment posted here two or three days ago, a reader of this blog named Raymond Takashi Swenson shared a very Latter-day Saint Christmas poem that he had written, entitled \u201cName the Angels.\u201d \u00a0I like it very much, and I wrote to him seeking permission to include his poem in the main body of this blog. \u00a0I haven\u2019t heard back from him yet. \u00a0However, reasoning that he has already shared it here and that I\u2019m simply making it a bit more prominent \u2014 and knowing that it will seem at least slightly less relevant after Christmas Day \u2014 I\u2019ve decided to go ahead and post it here. \u00a0If he would rather that I not, I\u2019ll remove it instantly upon receiving his request. \u00a0In the meanwhile, here it is:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

NAME the ANGELS<\/p>\n

Come name the angels, one by one,
\nWho sang the birth of God\u2019s own Son:<\/p>\n

How Adam Michael led them all
\nTo praise Salvation from the Fall.<\/p>\n

How Noah Gabriel rejoiced,
\nThe Spirit Prison\u2019s freedom voiced.<\/p>\n

How Moses, giver of the Law,
\nIts true fulfillment sang with awe.<\/p>\n

Isaiah saw Emanuel
\nMake earth a holy place to dwell.<\/p>\n

And in their midst\u2013
\nWere You and I!\u2013
\nOur voices joined in the great, glad cry!<\/p>\n

(c) Raymond Takashi Swenson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Nativity by the great Sandro Botticelli, one of my favorite Renaissance painters \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I return yet again to the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0I\u2019ve been sharing a piece of Christmas music once daily, on average, since the beginning of the month of December, and I yet haven\u2019t even begun<\/em> to make a serious dent in the number of offenses inflicted upon the Winter Solstice season by theists and theism. \u00a0Nonetheless, today\u2019s will be the final entry in my Christmas musical catalog, and I\u2019ve selected a relatively new piece that many probably don\u2019t associate with the holiday. \u00a0(It would work equally well at Easter or, for that matter, on any day of the year.) \u00a0The lyrics of my selection, \u201cThe Lord of the Dance,\u201d were written by Sydney Carter in 1963 and then set to the tune of an old American Shaker hymn.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t found a performance of the hymn that is entirely to my liking. \u00a0But this version<\/a>, performed by the Marionettes Chorale, from Trinidad and Tobago, in an arrangement by the late Sir David Willcocks, is quite beautiful:<\/p>\n

I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
\nAnd I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
\nAnd I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth:
\nAt Bethlehem I had my birth.<\/p>\n

Dance, then, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance, said he.<\/em><\/p>\n

I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee,
\nBut they would not dance and they wouldn\u2019t follow me;
\nI danced for the fishermen, for James and John;
\nThey came with me and the dance went on:<\/p>\n

Dance, then, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance, said he.<\/em><\/p>\n

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame:
\nThe holy people said it was a shame.
\nThey buried my body and they thought I\u2019d gone;
\nBut I am the dance, and I still go on:<\/p>\n

Dance, then, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance, said he.<\/em><\/p>\n

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black;
\nIt\u2019s hard to dance with the devil on your back.
\nThey whipped and they stripped and they hung me on high,
\nAnd they left me there on a cross to die:<\/p>\n

Dance, then, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance, said he.<\/em><\/p>\n

They cut me down and I leapt up high;
\nI am the life that\u2019ll never, never die.
\nI\u2019ll live in you if you\u2019ll live in me:
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he.<\/p>\n

Dance, then, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nI am the Lord of the dance, said he,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all, wherever you may be,<\/em>
\nAnd I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance, said he.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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