It’s your choice — trust God to help

We all know that it’s children who make the season of Christmas fun. Their innocence warms our hearts. The Sunday school class had sung “Silent Night” and had been told the Christmas story. The teacher then suggested that her pupils draw the nativity scene. A little boy finished first. The teacher praised his drawing of the manger, of Joseph, of Mary and the infant Jesus. But she was puzzled by a roly-poly figure off to one side and asked who it was. “Oh” explained the youngster, “That’s Round John Virgin.”

The nativity scene is sometimes a source of challenge to children — like Laura Mayfield. Her mother, Donna, says that she and five-year-old Laura were setting out the nativity set on a table. Laura watched her mother put all the figurines in the stable. She was especially interested in baby Jesus. Donna explained what a manger was — that they didn’t have a crib for him, so they had to lay a blanket on the hay in a feeding trough and put him there. Laura thought about that for a minute and then she asked, “Mom, did they have to use a manger for his car seat, too?”

Children don’t get all the particulars of the story right all the time, but just as Jesus is the center of the nativity scene, he is at the center of the Christmas story. Our culture has co-opted the event of Christmas, but unless Jesus is at the center of it, then it has no more power than an office party or Columbus Day.

God sent us His love in Jesus Christ, and Christmas is the celebration of that event. God still sends that love to you today, if you just let Him. God bless you and Merry Christmas.

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