It was an ordinary day. Just finished filling our living room coffee table with holiday photographs. I built the table over 20 years ago after we had moved into our "Beach House" in 1996. Or new home was larger than our first home and we needed a few more pieces of furniture to fill the interior spaces. The coffee table is about 40" x 40" with two glass panels on the top so we could place items in the table and you can view these items through the glass panels.
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| The Three Kings: myself, Dr. Martin and my dad, Paul Woods |
At Christmas we filled the table with family Christmas photographs. One of those photos in the table this year was a picture of my dad, our family doctor Dr. Martin and myself all dressed as the three Kings of Orient. For years the three of us were the kings who visited the manger with gifts in the town of Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. It was part of the Christmas pageant at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My gift was always the natural gum or resin known as myrrh. The resin was used as a perfume, incense, as well as a medicine. It seems that it might be a great gift had Jesus been born this year, since the coronavirus has just about shut down the biblical town of Bethlehem during the height of the normally cheery holiday season. Thousands of pilgrims usually descend on the town, but they are absent this year. Restaurants, hotels and retail shops are closed and the yearly Christmas lighting service has been limited to just a small group of authorized people. The owner of the 120-room Angel Hotel has pronounced that "Bethlehem is Dead." It is the same hotel where an outbreak of the virus stuck in March of this year. The hotel was closed and the entire staff has been laid off with no sign of the pandemic ending soon. About three million tourists visited Bethlehem last year, but Israel, which is the main entry point for international visitors, is banning tourists this year. The city relies on tourism for survival, but tourists seem to be staying away to avoid the virus. The Palestinian Authority has imposed a nighttime lockdown in hopes of controlling the virus. This lockdown may last until after Christmas if necessary. There have been over 620 deaths in the area already this year. The Mayor of Bethlehem, Anton Salman has limited invited guests to just 15 to see the famed Christmas tree lighting scheduled for Thursday.  |
| Celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem will be on a small scale this Christmas. |
A Christmas evening midnight Mass that is usually attended by hundreds of pilgrims from around the world is also being scaled back. The event has been closed to the public with just diplomats invited to the event. It will be broadcast live for those that have access to the broadcast. Seems that no one wants to be responsible for inviting large amounts of people and chancing a great loss of life on one of the holiest days in Bethlehem. It seems as if Christmas Eve will have to wait until next year in hopes of taking control of the Covid-19 pandemic. So sad on such a joyous religious occasion. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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