December 25

It’s Christmas Day!!!! And “The Word has become flesh, and He dwells among us!!” (John 1:14)

Dear Jesus, Today we celebrate your Advent into our world. I am left joyful and transformed by the eternal Truth of your coming. I cannot understand the why, I can only celebrate it. I cannot fathom the depths of your love for me, I can only rest in it. And I cannot not undo the unspeakable changes which have taken place in me since the day I accepted your Advent into my heart, I can only express my gratitude for it, trying each day to allow the Truth of your Advent to live on in and through me. Thank you, dear Jesus, for calling me to yourself, and for choosing to include me in your family for ever more. Amen.

Over the years I have heard and read lots of Christmas Stories, but few have affected me quite the same way as the one Paul Harvey use to tell each Christmas I listened to him. I will take a few liberties with the telling of it, but for the most part, this is the way Paul has told the story:

"One Christmas Eve Jane was getting herself ready for the Midnight Candlelight Service at her church. She could think of no place she would rather be than in church when the clock strikes midnight, ushering in yet another Christmas Day. She never tired of singing the songs and lighting the candles and experiencing the joy of Christmas as the midnight bells would ring in the Birthday of her Lord at midnight on the 25^th of December. As always, she would ready herself, and stroll over to her husband Sam to invite him to the service. And each year she would hear the same response, “I just don’t get it. How you people can believe that God became human, that the Creator of all things would become a baby in manger, is beyond me. I just don’t get this Christmas stuff. I’m afraid you will have to go celebrate your Christmas myth without me.”

It was a particularly snowy Christmas Eve. The wind howled around Jane as she walked toward the church, and it seemed that Sam had the better idea as he sat close to the fire, book open, pipe lit, and hot tea by his side. The deeper into the night it got the louder and fiercer the wind and the snow grew. At one point Sam could no longer concentrate on his book, due to the pounding he could hear against the side of the house. Curious as to what was going on, he grabbed his coat and walked outside into cold, snowy, night air. He was rather amazed at what he saw. It seems a flock of birds had gotten caught up in the storm and were completely disoriented. They kept trying to escape the wind and the snow, but found themselves rather blinded and crashing into the side of the house. Sam had always been a bird lover, and was moved with compassion by their plight. Pausing to think, he figured there must be something he could do to help the birds. 

An idea hit him. He would walk over to the barn, open the door, and put them up for the night. “Sam’s bird hotel”, he thought. I’ll get them warm and then send them on their way. He opened the door and turned on the light, thinking they might be attracted to the light and voluntarily come inside. As you may have guessed, the birds were not on the same page as Sam, and just continued to flap about in the wind and snow. “What can I do to get them inside? I’ll shew them in.” He approached cautiously, and waved his arms about similar to that of a bird in order to direct their attempts at flying toward his barn. It just wasn’t working. The birds had no clue what this weird looking man was trying to do, and the only reaction he was able to garner was fear. Imagine that, birds afraid of a human bird. 

Sam felt almost helpless at this point. If only the birds could understand that he was not trying to harm them, but to help them. If only he could get them to understand that he was concerned for their safety, trying to keep them warm, tying to spare them any further damage to their tiny bodies and wings. If only these birds could open themselves to the care and compassion he has for them, fly into his barn and stay a while so that they might be kept from the wind and snow of this powerful storm. If only he could get them to trust him, instead of fear him. 

Sam’s imagination ran wild. “What can I do? What can I say? How can I get these birds to understand and trust me? If only I could be a bird for a bit. If only I could climb into one of their tiny bodies and speak their language and be one of them so they might listen to me and go into the safety of my barn. If only I could be one of them long enough to get them to trust me, so I could lead them to safety. If only”…….and just as these thoughts were racing in his mind he heard through the wind and the snow the sound of the church bells ushering in the midnight hour, and yet another Christmas Day. His “If only I could be a bird……” was replaced with the sound of church bells. For the first time in his life, Sam was experiencing Christmas. Not because of the bells, but because of the birds. He fell to his knees, tears forming in his eyes, as he realized that he was one of those birds, trapped in a cold, dark world. Sam now understood that God, moved by compassion, had become a bird. God had the ability to become one of us, so that we might learn to trust, so that He might speak our language, so that He might lead us out of the storm and into the safety of a warm barn. God had accomplished for us what he could not accomplish for these birds."

I cannot fathom why God has done such a thing for us. To sacrifice life and be willing to experience death, to leave His throne for a cave, to lay down eternity and clothe himself with mortality, and to say “see ya later” to the angelic hosts to hang out with the disciples. It all seems to much to grasp. This is the gift of God. This is the true meaning of Christmas. This is the day that the world was forever changed. God is still waving His arms, trying to get us to enter the safety of His barn - His Son. Maybe this Christmas will be the day the church bells ring for someone you love in the midst of their cold winter storm.