Christmas Greetings!

Christmas greetings from our family to yours! The girls have greatly enjoyed the day as well as Nathan. We have worked hard to keep things relatively quiet and yet traditional for our family - the girls do best with routine and lower-excitement activities.

The main reason for this post is to share something that was posted on a yahoo group I belong to. I think it is fascinating, and hopefully it will warm your heart as well. Enjoy, and again, Merry Christmas!
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I want to tell you about a really neat discovery that I recently becameaware of. This is based on a discovery that someone else had already made.China has an ocean of ancient historical texts that historians swimthrough. No historian can ever read them all or even has access to themall. One ancient historical text called the "History of the Latter Han" Hasthree very remarkable passages. The Han Dynasty was from about 206 BC to220 AD. There is also another text called "History of Former Han Dynasty."In this text, there is record of a new star at Altair (a constellation) "onthe day of Ji You, the third month of the third year on JianPing."建平三年三月己酉，有星孛于河鼓 One scholar places the date of that occurrence to themonth of April, 4 B.C. (Historians are consistently arguing about our Romancalendar lining up with the Chinese record and whether it is correct or off4 years.) Now, seeing a new star (or comet) was not too unsusual for theearly Chinese and they often wrote about such events. However, two laterevents recorded in the former mentioned text are facinating. Precisely 33years after the appearance of the before mentioned star, the record tells ofan eclipse of the sun and moon. I quote:"In the day of Gui Hai, the last day of the month, there was a solareclipse. [The emperor] avoided the Throne Room, suspended all militaryactivities, and did not handle official business for five days. And heproclaimed, 'My poor character has caused this calamity, that the sun andthe moon were veiled. I am fearful and trembling. What can I say?...Anyone who presents a memorial is not allowed to mention the word 'holy.'"癸亥晦，日有食之，避正殿，寝兵，不听事五日。诏曰，吾德薄致灾，谛见日月，战栗恐惧，夫何言哉！其上书者，不得言圣。Another comment on the eclipse in the same record reads:"Eclipse on the day of Gui Hai, Man from heaven died."癸亥日食，天人崩AMAZING! "Man from heaven died."天人崩. Later the emperor issued an edictreferring to the event and said:"Summer, fourth month, on the day of Ren Wu, the imperial edict reads, Yinand Yang have mistakenly switched, and the sun and moon were eclipsed. Thesins of all people are now on one man. [The emperor] proclaims pardon toall under heaven."夏四月壬午，诏曰：比阴阳错谬，日月薄食．百姓有过，在予 一人，大赦天下Also, three days after the eclipse (Christ's resurrection) the record reads:"...on the day of Bing Yin of the forth month of Jian Wu, a halo -- arainbow -- encircled the sun."光武建武七年四月丙寅，日有晕抱，白虹贯晕Jesus Christ is the Savior of ALL nations.(Taken from: *History of Former Han Dynasty,* Chronicles of Emperor Ai, 3rdyear; *History of the Latter Han Dynasty, *Vol. 1, Chronicles of EmperorGuang Wu, 7th year; *History of the Latter Han, *Annals No. 18. Gui Hai.)