Leave Christ in the
Story
It has become a Christmas Eve tradition to read the story of
Jesus’ birth at our annual family gathering. Since we had two energetic
four-year-old boys at last year’s celebration, I decided to tweak our tradition
a bit and read the Christmas story from a preschool book. This was a special
book to the boys; it was a lift-the-flap book. As many of you know who have
children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews of your own, lift-a-flap stories and
the surprises that await little fingers under the flap are extra special.
We
made our way through several pages of the book, each boy taking a turn lifting
a flap to reveal the angel Gabriel and animals in the stable. When we got to
the flap that lifted to reveal the baby Jesus in the manger, a small tussle
broke out between the two boys vying to see who could lift this flap. In the
struggle, they both grasped the baby Jesus cutout and ripped him right from
Mary’s arms! How ironic. Inadvertently, these boys had removed baby Jesus
entirely from the “Christmas Story.”
 |
| Oops |
How many times have we done the same thing
during this most festive time of year? In our mad rush to buy gifts for others
and juggle our schedules to attend every Christmas party, we often rip God’s
real gift to us right out of our celebrations. Let us remember Jesus’ words in
John 10:28 – “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can
snatch them out of my hand.” And that is the most wonderful gift of all. We
must be ever careful to leave God’s precious gift to us in all of our holiday
celebrations.
With love,
TCB
