Light of Christmas

About twenty years ago there was a house near the entrance of our subdivision that kept their Christmas lights burning long after the season was past. ...

Christ’s Humble Birth

In his best-selling book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey contrasts the humility that characterized Jesus’ royal visit to planet earth with ...

Holy Gift Exchange

Christmas is based on an exchange of gifts, the gift of God to man--His unspeakable gift of His Son, and the gift of man to God--when we present our bodies ...

The "Yes" of Christmas

I realized that songs, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying ...

Christmas Tree: A Poor Substitute

The Christmas tree has taken the place of the altar in too much of our modern Christmas observance.

Going to the Ultimate Home

There fared a mother driven forth

Out of an inn to roam;

In the place where she was homeless

All men are at home.

The crazy stable close at hand,

With shaking ...

Very Few Understand Christmas

There were only a few shepherds at the first Bethlehem. The ox and the ass understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. ...

Communion with God: Two-Way Street

Mary and Joseph, along with both the simple shepherds and the learned Wise Men, show us that communication with the Lord needs two partners: God sends ...

"Goat" Tell It on the Mountain

My three-year-old son, Grant, told me he learned a new song in children's church about goats on the mountain when Jesus was born. I hadn't heard that ...

Learning the Second Verse

Our children's church, which I directed, was putting on a play for Christmas. As I began planning the music, I asked one of my daughters and another little ...