All that Matters

I have read in the ancillary news and on social media of the many things that were not there at the time of Christ's birth. It may have been a stable. It may have been a cave. It may have been a house, and wherever it was, it's certain there were no animals there. Nor were the Wise Men, who may have come years after his birth, or shepherds, who may or may not have seen the star at all.

These tales are told, they say, due to Christians subverting elements of the pagan holiday, or adornments added through every action from hubris to innocent ignorance. The underlying message in these stories ranges from gentle reconciliation of the Gospels to modern tsk-ing that anyone would believe in such twaddle.

And some are passing around a 3-D rendering of Andre the Giant and chuckling at the idiot Christians who rail against the claim it is what Joseph looked like.

What the stories fail to do - and what the shaming and correcting and eye-rolling cannot undo is to tell me what was there:

Wonderful.

Counsellor.

The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father: the Prince of Peace.

And that, in the end, is all that matters.