When I was a little girl, Christmas was a wonderful time of the year. Our family would go to one Christmas celebration with my mom’s family, and another one with my dad’s. These were both big families: there were six children in my dad’s family and eight in me mom’s. So there were lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. Both families celebrated with plenty of food, fancy Christmas cookies, and presents. My mom’s father died when I was very young, so I don’t remember him at all. But my dad’s father lived well into his nineties, so I remember him well. And I will always remember him reading the Christmas story from the Bible in his thick Norwegian accent. After dinner, everyone would gather in the living room, children, of course sitting on the floor. The presents under the Christmas tree were the foremost thing in the minds of the children. But we knew we had to sit perfectly still and be quiet while my grandpa read the Christmas story. Sometimes it was painful, and sometimes the passage he read from Luke, in the King James Version of the Bible, seemed awfully long. But as I look back on it, I wouldn’t trade that memory for anything. The passage he read every year was the same one we are reading for our text this morning, Luke 2:1-20.
Most of us have heard the Christmas story so many times that we feel like we know it well. Yet, we never tire of hearing it again, because it is our story. It is one of the central stories of our faith—it is the story of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Perhaps, like me, you have memories of when you first heard this story. If you do, you are blessed. Enjoy those memories as I read this beloved story once again.
1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
4So Joseph also went up from the town of
6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Throughout the centuries, this story has touched millions of people. This story of God becoming a helpless newborn baby speaks to us of God’s love for us.
For some people, the story of God becoming human is difficult to believe. Harriet McClain gave me a story I want to share with you.
There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe.
One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife took their children to church. She asked him to go, but he refused. “That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower Himself to come to earth as a man? Ridiculous!” So his wife and children left, and he stayed home.
While she was gone, the snow turned into a blizzard. Sitting by the fire, the man heard a thump, and then another thump.
He ventured out into the snow to see what it was. Nearby, he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm, and could not go on. They were lost; stranded on his farm with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around in low circles. A couple of them had flown into his window.
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. He knew his barn would be a great place for them to stay. It was warm and safe, and when the storm ended they could continue on. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, and then watched, hoping they would notice the open doors and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and did not seem to notice the barn.
The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a trail of bread crumbs leading to the barn.
Still, they didn’t catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared, and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.
“Why won’t they follow me?” he asked. “Can’t they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?” He thought for a moment, and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human. “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.
Then, he had an idea. He went into the barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms, circling around behind the flock of wild geese and then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn—and one by one, the other geese followed it to safety.
He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!”
Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!” Suddenly, it all made sense. That is what God did. We were like the geese—blind, lost, perishing. God had his son become like us so he could show us the way and save us. That, he suddenly realized, is the meaning of Christmas.
As the winds died down, his soul became quiet and he pondered this wonderful thought. He understood what Christmas was all about, and why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief melted away like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer.
“Thank you, Jesus, for coming in human form to show me the way out of the storm.”
That is the message of Christmas. That God loved the world so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to show us the way to understand and know God. Jesus—God in human form—is Emmanuel, God with us.
While it’s not easy for many of us to quickly grasp this truth, let me share another story of a young boy who heard the Christmas story for the first time, and totally got it.
This story was told by a woman who went on a short-term mission trip. Here’s how she tells the story.
We were overseas for a short-term missions trip and it was nearing the holiday season, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in
Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.
Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.
Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel were used for the baby's blanket a doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we brought from the
The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where a little boy sat. He looked to be about 6-years-old and had finished his project. I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger.
Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously.
For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately -- until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then he started to ad-lib.
He made up his own ending to the story as he said, "And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have any place to stay."
"Then Jesus told me I could stay with Him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have a gift to give Him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept Him warm, that would be a good gift."
"So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep You warm, will that be a good enough gift?' And Jesus told me, 'If you keep Me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave
As he finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor leave him, Someone who would stay with him -- for always!
And the Americans? They had learned the lesson they had come to teach --- that it is not what you have in life, but Who you have in your life that really counts.
Emmanuel. God with us. That is who Jesus is—he is the one who will always be there; the one who will never leave us or forsake us, no matter what.
Prayer:
Lord, come near to us. For those of us who find it difficult to believe, speak the truth to our hearts. May we, like that little orphan child, crawl up into the manger to be with you. Lord Jesus, on this Christmas Eve Sunday, we ask that you would come into our hearts and fill us with your hope, your love, your joy, your peace. Be to each of us Emmanuel—God with us. Amen
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