Happy Birthday, Jesus! :)

BC:AD
This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future's
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.

This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.

And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.
U.A. Fanthorpe

Excerpt from How Silently, How Silently, The Wondrous Gift is Given: Christmas 2008:

The Christian liturgical calendar observes "special" times of the year as "extraordinary" feasts (or fasts). These are times that punctuate exceptional moments in the rhythm of the year.

The rest of the year is relegated to so-called "Ordinary Time." But the affirmation of the incarnation is that there is no such thing as ordinary time, ordinary place, or ordinary people. Nor is there any ordinary school, soccer team, or job. There is no ordinary marriage or friendship. The implications are endless. If the son of God gasped his first baby breaths while screaming in a feeding trough, if tax decrees by pagan emperors, and if ruddy shepherds working the night shift all played their role in the redemption of the cosmos, then no one and no thing is "ordinary."