Exit 136 GSP Linden Jesus

With its many refining facilities supplying over 230,000 barrels of petroleum-based products, you smell Linden, long before you get there. Perhaps someone at the local government was sniffing much too much of the petrol at Christmas.

To the city’s credit, there is a Nativity scene built on the front lawn of City Hall. The wise men at the city government decided that the manger would lay empty without the Christ child until December 25th when the baby would miraculously appear.

Only problem was that December 25th came and went without Jesus in the manger. The other Wisemen, Mary & Joseph along with a few sheep and cows starred at an empty troth.

But then the Christmas miracle happened, albeit a day late. Baby Jesus, wearing a blue-painted blanket was spotted in the crib next to the Hanukkah menorah. The mayor explained, "It was an embarrassing oversight." Residents complained that the city has no problem remembering when tax bills are due but can’t seem to remember when Christ was born.

II Peter: So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

Eixt 148 GSP Bloomfield Jesus

The residents of Bloomfield give Staten Island a run for their money having the most Guidos per square mile. But alias, the town’s not all gold chains and wife-beater Tees.

After all, William Batchelder Bradbury is buried here. Who you ask? Well, every Sunday School student knows his biggest hit, Jesus Loves Me and folks still walk down the isle over at Brookdale Baptist Church to his other song, Just as I Am.

I wonder what William would think of the state of home Christmas decorations in town nowadays. On the positive side, just driving one mile in town I counted 15 front lawn Nativity scenes. But gone are the plastic-GE-lit manger scenes, replaced by inflatable, blow-up types. At first, I thought I spotted a wayward Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon that crash-landed at East Passaic Ave. But the more I drove, the more I spotted.

While I’m not into inflatable Wisemen, Mary or Joseph, at least thieves can’t just pick up baby Jesus and run. It’s all or nothing, and it’s pretty hard to go unnoticed stealing a 15 ft. blow-up manger.

But the inflatables do have one major flaw. They deflate with major temperature changes and strong gusts of wind and just wither away; not very sustaining.

Luke 8:6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.