Christmas in July

July 30 was one of my favorite days. We had a wonderful fieldtrip to the Herodian and the shepherd fields outside of Bethlehem where we had our Christmas program.


These are the ruins of Herod the Great's summer palace built by slaves atop a man-made mountain. It's huge! The round tower behind me was at least 45 feet taller than it is now. There were courtyards and gardens and bedchambers and passageways. And at the bottom of the mountain was a huge swimming pool where they held mock naval battles. It's an intense fortress.

The view from King Herod's grand palace is of Bethlehem, where there was no room at the inn for the true King of Kings. It is an interesting dichotomy between these two kings. Herod had a summer palace here at the Herodian, a winter palace in Jericho, and palaces at Masada and Jerusalem while Christ had not where to lay his head. Herod killed 45ish members of the Sanhedrin, several of his sons, his favorite wife and all of the young children in this area to maintain his position as king while Christ gave His life to make us Kings (and Queens).


We went from the palace fortress of "Herod the Great Big Meanie" as named by Dr. Skinner to the fields where angels heralded the birth of Jesus Christ, the greatest of all. That is Bethlehem in the distance- a perfect backdrop for the nativity program. Grandma Foote would have loved this!

This is probably about the age of Mary and Joseph. I've always been amazed by these two humble and valiant servants. I can't imagine what they were feeling as they held the Son of God in their arms, knowing that they had been charged with the responsibility to raise Him in mortality.

The sheep were in the fields, and the shepherds abiding there (proof that it was in the spring because the shepherds stayed all night with their sheep during birthing season) when the angel Gabriel appeared to announce the birth of the Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Angels sang at His birth.

And the sheep sang too.

Mandy also sang, and she did a beautiful job. It was a very touching nativity, and the Christmas Spirit was definitely there, even if it was July.


As we were leaving we saw a shepherd over the hill with his sheep. It was so cool to see this and realize that we are actually here where these events took place. Sometimes it's hard to imagine what these places would have looked like 2,000 years ago but this was a pretty good visual. I always wonder what it would have been like to take part in these events and I tried to imagine the jubilation those shepherds felt at the announcement of Jesus the Christ, knowing that His birth brought salvation to all of mankind. They went and found Christ, and then they proclaimed what they had experienced here in this very place. I feel a responsibility to do the same after having such singular experiences this summer in these same places. And I think that charge goes to all of us, as we find Christ ourselves we must proclaim Him- and if we truly believe, we will want to.

And the day ended with a beautiful sunset!