When I was attending Catholic grade school growing up, a common picture you would see in the classrooms was a picture of Jesus surrounded by children. Jesus was reaching out to touch one of them ...

When I was attending Catholic grade school growing up, a common picture you would see in the classrooms was a picture of Jesus surrounded by children. Jesus was reaching out to touch one of them or… ...

There sits brown-skinned, round-faced, curly haired Jesus, surrounded by children with Asian features — on his lap, next to him and responding to his outstretched hand.

It must have been refreshing for Jesus himself to be surrounded by children after facing the cold hostility and hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Advertisement. Advertisement. Advertisement.

In Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered as Jesus' birthplace, Christmas is all but canceled, in solidarity with Palestinians' suffering in Gaza.