The Hidden Meaning of Bethlehem

Your Christmas table has more food than anyone could finish.

Now rewind two thousand years. In your village, food mostly means one thing: bread. Historians think it was at least half of everything people ate.

Every morning starts at the grinding stone. Ima grinds, you feed the oven, and Tobi helps for about a minute.

Now here's a question for you. Guess what the name Bethlehem means.

In Hebrew it's Beit Lehem. Beit means house. Lehem means bread. Say it in Hebrew, and Bethlehem is the House of Bread.

Now think about where Luke says the baby was laid. In a manger. A feeding trough, the place where the animals came to eat.

Born in the House of Bread. Laid where the animals were fed.

Years later, after feeding a crowd of five thousand with a boy's barley loaves, Jesus says it out loud in John's Gospel: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry."

In a world where bread meant survival, that was no small thing to say. Your table has more than enough. Theirs had bread, if they were lucky.