Where I don't want to be for Christmas

Merry Christmas

Using satellites they were able to get a picture of the North Pole and Greenland. I know we have grown up with the magical myths of the North Pole being a great place to visit. The fact that no country owns the Arctic should be a clue for us not to plan a vacation there. Particularly in the winter it can reach -94 degrees below zero F. Reading of stories of people who explored and lived there to do research is enough to make me appreciate my humble dwellings right here in Illinois.

The Arctic is actually a sheet of ice the size of the United States. The magnetic pole moves every year about 6 to 25 miles a year. Polar Bears and Killer Whales are top predators on the planet. I once landed in Greenland flying from Europe. It looked to cold for me.

My friend Ken Gill and I agree on one thing, a visit to the North Pole is not on our bucket list. I find the picture fascinating and I don't want to see it melt. If it does you can say goodbye to Florida to say the least.

The Arctic Tern flies to the South Pole in our winter and returns to the Arctic Pole in the summer. That is some serious flying, just under 24,000 miles. If I walk aerobically 2 miles a day I walk 730 miles. If I walk 10,000 steps a day I can cover 1825 miles in a year. I would never catch up to that bird. To keep pace I would have to walk 65 miles a day. There is more chance I would do that then visit the North Pole. Antarctic is even colder and never warms up above zero.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. I visited another place on the planet some 35 years ago where God became man. Bethlehem in Jesus day was just a small village. Today it is a small city. It was off the beaten track as well as Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. The Christmas story as we tell it occurs over two years in actual time. Jesus as a child would have travelled to surrounding villages and worked with his earthly dad, Joseph the carpenter. As a young man in his thirties he would perform many signs and teach and show all of us God in the flesh. He would die on the cross and shed his blood in the Father's plan to save and forgive us. That is the gift of Christmas. We give gifts to our loved ones and have a Christmas meal and other traditions, but take note of the real gift of Christmas.

Burr! it is cold at the North Pole. Keep walking