I't's finally settled.  We are going to be a "Mask up" class.  Everyone thinks that's best--except one--and she can join by phone.  It relieves a lot of pressure on me.  I don't have to be the bad guy and say, "You have to wear a mask."  My educational director said all the over 50 age classes but mine were wearing masks.  So.  It's done.  Masks, or connect by phone.

Since it's almost Christmas, we are learning the Christmas story through the eyes of storyteller Luke, about Mary and Zechariah.  What it felt like to be those people.  The human aspect.  Zechariah and Mary saw an angel, Gabriel--who said that he stands in the presence of God.  And that God had sent him to them personally with a message.

I have had to rethink something that I have always held as truth...and that was that in the old days, the Holy Spirit "came upon" people.  But after Pentecost, the Spirit that Adam lost and Christ restored "Dwelt within man."  But here, we find in Luke 1:15 that "...he (John the Baptist) shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."  Which means God is sending someone holy from the git-go.  And in vs. 41 it says, "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.  In vs.67, "Zachariah was filled with the Holy Ghost."  All before Pentecost.

They believed in Jesus and were filled with his spirit before he was even born.  Those three people prepared the way of the Lord.  John, Elizabeth, and Zachariah.  Two very old people past childbearing age, and their son--John the Baptist.