This is the Story of Christmas

When I was a child, all television programs were in black and white and there were only three networks—ABC, NBC, and CBS. While this arrangement did not make for particularly exciting television viewing, it made for simple television viewing.  Saturday nights gave viewers a choice of watching either Lawrence Welk or Gunsmoke, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons were devoted to televised sports on all three networks.

Holidays were devoted to the airing of the same shows every year that had been made to celebrate the particular holiday at hand. When I was very young—five or six years old—Christmas programming consisted of a number of re-enactments of the birth of Christ played back to back. Every year it was the same thirty-minute programs so that even as a child I was able to recognize the various productions from year to year.

Each of these programs consisted of a badly scripted and equally badly acted retelling of Mary and Joseph finding shelter in the stable and the wise men and shepherds paying tribute to the newborn king. However, none of them attempted to tell the viewer why this message is important to modern day humans or how it impacts on our lives.

Apparently, not much has changed. This year churches everywhere will hold Christmas pageants in which children will play the parts, and the retelling of the events chronicled in the Bible will be faithfully retold. All Christians love the story, and we will be glad to be reminded of how God sent Jesus to be born in the most humble of circumstances to live among us.

I wonder, however, what impact these pageants would have on those who have never heard the Gospel. Would they leave knowing why this message is important and how it impacts on their lives? My guess is that as beautiful as the story of the birth of Christ is, those who do not know Jesus would not understand that to appreciate what happened at the birth of Jesus we must understand why He came in the first place.

Therefore, I submit to anyone reading this who may not understand the why and how of the birth of Christ, this is the story of Christmas: God sent His son to earth to live among us so that we could know Him and love Him and accept Him as our Savior. If anyone comes to Jesus, He forgives him of his sins and gives him an abundant life here on earth and eternal life with God in Heaven. The Christmas spirit is the Holy Spirit who dwells in all who belong to Jesus, and He is with us every day.

This year as we share the story of Christ’s birth with our children, I hope that we will remember to tell them why He came and how His coming is relevant to our lives.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.