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Benjamin’s Love Bucket – A Kingdom Mystery

“...whoever does not receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it all.” Mark 10:14-15 AMP

     September 29th our family celebrated Jesus’ real birthday, which most likely happened on the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles in 4 BC. We gathered together for dinner and acknowledged Christ’s entry into the earth by singing happy birthday and having cake.  (Below I have given the history and reason why we honor Him on September 29.)

      This year Benjamin, my six year old grandson, burst into the house, ran full speed into the family room and slid to a stop in front of me, a shiny object swinging in his hand.

     “Grandma, I brought Jesus a present. He never gets a present for his birthday.”

     “Oh, Benjamin that is wonderful! Set the bucket on the table.” I laughed a surprised giggle and watched him step back and look at his gift.

     “Do you think he will like it?” A concerned look spread across his face.

     “Of course he will like it. It’s a bucket of love. The perfect gift.” I picked it off the table and handed it to him. “Let me take your picture with it.”

     He took the bucket and ran away. I tried to go after him, but other family members had arrived and hugs and greetings ensued and distracted me from my mission. After he left, I looked for the bucket, but couldn’t find it.

     The next morning, I called his Dad to find out where Benjamin hid it. I also wanted to find out why he ran away when I wanted to take his picture with it. Was he embarrassed? What was going through his mind that caused him to hide the bucket?

     “It’s behind the sofa,” my son said, then added, “The first thing he asked when he woke up this  morning was if he did the right thing by giving Jesus the bucket.”

     “Why did he say that?”

     “I don’t know.” He paused. “It seemed he wanted my approval.” My son referenced the abuse by his preschool teacher that had happened three years earlier and added, “You know, Mom, during that time, he heard over and over, I’m telling your parents you’re a bad boy.”

    After I hung up, I found the bucket behind the sofa, held it in my hands and tried to quiet my raging thoughts. My grandma-bear heart wanted to rip that teacher apart. After pacing back and forth awhile, I settled in my comfy Jesus chair and waited. It took a while, but my heart beat slowed. His peaceful presence and words invaded my I want to get revenge thoughts.

     “I gave him that bucket before the foundation of the world.”

     Oh, boy, here we go again with that before the foundation of the world stuff. I breathed deep, exhaled, then waited in silence, eyes closed. I knew better than to argue. Then it happened. A beautiful picture formed before me. Can’t tell you how. It just did. Almost like a dream. Maybe it was a dream.

     I saw Jesus playing with Benjamin on the seashore with his bucket, the one he gave Jesus at the party. Jesus picked him up and walked with him in his arms along the shoreline, then stopped, lifted Ben’s chin and looked deep into his eyes.

      In that moment, I knew Benji knew and I knew what Jesus was saying, even though it was not like normal conversation. It was more like a quick passing of thoughts.

      “Love your teacher.” Jesus’ eyes shone with tenderness and compassion.

     Ben scrunched his brows together. “She hurt me.”

    Jesus caressed Benjamin’s face with his fingers without taking his eyes off him. “Forgive her.”

      Benji dropped his head and snuggled his face into Jesus’ chest. His shoulders shook and I felt within my own being his brokenness, his struggle to surrender.

      Jesus held him close and  repeated, “I know. I know.” A shimmering, translucent light radiated from Jesus’ chest and intermingled with a soft glow coming from Ben that made it difficult to distinguish one from the other.   

      After a while, to my surprise, Benji looked up and grinned a mischievous smile that I’d seen numerous times, his sadness and pain gone, somehow absorbed into Jesus’ loving heart.

      Now, he wanted to play. Wiggling out of his arms, he found his footing in the sand and started running.

     “Catch me!”

     Jesus laughed, ran after him and swooped him into his arms. Benji giggled. Jesus thrust him up where diamond like sparkles reflected off His face, then caught him in his arms and placed his feet on the sand. Ben grabbed the bucket in one hand and reached for Jesus with his other.

     As they walked away, Jesus looked over his shoulder at me and like so often happens in Kingdom conversation, I knew without a word being spoken, what he was saying. I saw it in his eyes.

      “I’ve got this,” the very message He’d spoken to me through Ben’s father weeks earlier during a family crisis.

      It is difficult to explain how I knew it, but I knew Ben’s adventure with Jesus transpired before time, while Benjamin was in the invisible Kingdom, inside the Father before the foundation of the world. Before they call I will answer…Isaiah 65:24 (ESV).

     The next day I called my grandson. “Benji, never be ashamed of showing your love for Jesus. You were the only one that thought to give him a present. That was very special. I know Jesus smiled when he saw your bucket of love.”

     “Would you tell my Dad?”

     “You want me to tell your Dad what I just said?

     “Yeah.”

    “Ok, put your Dad on the phone.” I reiterated to him what I had told Benjamin and concluded with, “I think he wants your affirmation.”

      “I am so proud of you, Benji.” His father’s voice cracked.  “That was really special.”

     “Grandma,” Ben interrupted, “You can keep the bucket.”

     We all laughed. The love bucket sits on my desk as a reminder of a little boy who remembered to give love to Jesus when everyone else forgot.

     Beloved Ones, Let us all seek the kingdom of God with the simplicity and trust of a child’s heart who is secure in His Father’s love.

        And always remember that God’s got this. He holds every difficulty you will ever face in His hands, and has already provided the answer before the foundation of the world.

     “…May God himself, the heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, release grace over you and impart total well-being into your lives.

     Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus---all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!

     And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence” (Ephesians 1:2b-4, TPT).

     I am always available if you need a listening ear or agreement in prayer.

     Linda Fergerson, His Little Butterfly

How We Calculate the Possible Date

One way to determine the date of Jesus' birth is to determine the date of John the Baptist’s birth. Elizabeth, John's mother, was Mary's cousin and wife of Zechariah, a priest of the group of Abijah, who ministered in the temple during the eighth lot. (Priests were divided into 24houses, each one officiating in the Temple for 2 weeks, according to their lot).(Read 1 Chronicles 24:10)

Following There was in the days of Herod king of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the group ofAbijah, who had as a woman one of Aaron's daughters named Elizabeth. (Luke 1:5) As he was burning the incense, an angel appeared to him (Luke 1:8-12) But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. (Luke 1:13)

Now let’s take a look at the Jewish calendar to discover the time when Elizabeth conceive.

The Jewish year began in the month of Nisan, which is on March

15th of our calendar. Abijah’s turn to minister on the eighth shift was during the second half of the month of Tamuz, which for us is between June 15th and 30th. This leads us to conclude that John was conceived possibly on July 1st or 2nd and was born  9 months later at the end of April. The birth of John and Jesus were separated by 6 months. (Read Luke 1:36)

Therefore, Jesus was born in late September or early October. Scholars on the subject say that Jesus was born on September 29th, a date that coincided with the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 4 B.C.

Brief History of The Provenance of "Christmas" December 25th

Sol Invictus ("Undefeated Sun" or "Unconquered") was a religious cult of a solar divinity initiated in the late Roman Empire. The Festival of this god (Dies Natalis Solis Invictus) indicated that a new sun was born that defeated darkness starting at the end of the winter solstice (December 21). From that date, the days were going to get longer.  

In the year 274 Emperor Aurelian made official the cult of the Sun Invictus, along with the other Roman traditions. This god was greatly favored by the following emperors and appeared on the coins minted until the arrival of Constantine who merge him with Jesus. The new Roman Jesus, “the Sun Invictus,” was established to be officially worshiped as the new religion of the Empire.

The religion of the Sun Invictus remained part of the state religion until paganism was officially abolished by decree of Emperor Theodosius Iel February 27, A.D. 380.

The feast of the Sun Invictus was ended by the famous edict of Thessaloniki of Theodosius I on February 27, A.D. 380, in which the emperor established that the only religion of the state was Nicene Christianity, de facto forbidding all others.

December 25th was then established as the day the Roman Jesus (sun Invictus) birth was to be celebrated ignoring the true date most likely on the Feast of Tabernacles in 4 BC. This lie has been propagated down through history for centuries.