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HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
By Glenn PeaseWhen the Wright brothers finally got their flimsy plane to fly on the sandy beach of Kitty Hawk, NorthCarolina on Dec. 17, 1903, they sent a telegram telling of their success, and then added-home forChristmas. The atmosphere of being home for Christmas is one of the most universal humanexperiences. I'll Be Home For Christmas is always a popular song. All roads lead home at Christmas.Students in colleges and universities all over the world are filling planes, trains, buses and cars to gethome for Christmas Day with thousands of others from all walks of life. Like the homing pigeon, weall develop an instinct that says, the place to be at Christmas is home.One of the most common themes in Christmas stories is that of complex circumstances that make itseem impossible for families to be together for Christmas. They end happily, however, because God inHis province provides a way through the complexity. The other theme is that the circumstances cannotbe changed, but the new circumstances are so transformed that a whole setting is established for adelightful Christmas. This is what happened on the first Christmas. Mary and Joseph had to leave theirfamily and go to Bethlehem. But remember, Bethlehem was Joseph's home town. We don't know if hehad any family there anymore or not. It doesn't seem likely, or he would have tried to find them for aplace to stay. But the fact is, Bethlehem became their new home for sometime, and they gained a newfamily with the shepherds and wise men. Bethlehem became the earthly home town of the Lord of everywhere.Jesus came to this earth, not as a solitary individual, but as a member of a family. God could have sentHis Son in many different ways. He could have come as a warrior riding out of the desert to lead Israelin victory in battle. He could have been a wise man suddenly appearing to give astounding lectures inthe temple. Instead, He sent His Son into the world as a helpless baby who needed the protection of parents. He needed to grow and develop and experience all the stages of family life. God so loved thefamily and home that He choose to make that a major part of His experience in the incarnation of Himself in the flesh. Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life as part of a family with life revolvingaround the home. Jesus celebrated His birthday at home with His family for 30 years. No wonder thatChristmas is such a family holiday, and everyone wants to be home for it. God made Christmas to behome and family oriented.It was hard for Lavonne and I when we moved to Pennsylvania and could not get home for Christmas.It took some years of adjustment until we could recognize that we had to be the home where ourchildren would experience the joy of being home for Christmas. You can't always go home, forsometimes you have to be the home where others go. Edgar Guest, the famous poet, once heard tooyoung men on a street car. One said, “Are you going home for Christmas?” “Not this year,” was thereply. “I have just written the folks that I can't get away. Too much to do in the office just now.”Guest was bothered by this young man's response, and he wrote a poem that was published the next dayin the Detroit Free Press. The last part of it was this:Are you going home for Christmas? Have you written you'll be there?Going home to kiss the mother, and to show her that you care?Going home to greet the father in a way to make him glad?If you”re not, I hope they'll never come a time you'll wish you had.Just sit down and write a letter-it will make their heart strings hum
 
With a tune of perfect gladness-if you'll tell them that you'll come.For two weeks he had letters coming from people read his poem and changed their minds. Theydecided to go home for Christmas. It is hard not to go home, but the good news is, if you can't or don't,you can make where you are a home, and provide for someone else a home atmosphere so that thefamily aspect of Christmas can be a reality for them and you. Jesus made Bethlehem His home, and Hecan make wherever you are a home where He is so that you are always home for Christmas.Christmas is first and foremost about a baby. God uses small means to achieve big ends. When thepeople of Israel cried out to God for a deliverer, He did not send an angel in the clouds, or a warrior ona white horse. He sent them a baby in baby Moses in the ark. He always starts a new beginning with ababy. God often seems so impractical. The need is so great, but He gives a baby. Who in the worldneeds a baby when all is dark, and hope is failing? Everybody needs a baby, for a baby means hope,but few would see the value of a baby, for what they really need is a tax deduction. Halford Luccock says that the chief passion of a baby is to rearrange things. Nothing is okay just as it is. It has to bepulled over pulled out, pushed out, or pounded into some other shape. No baby ever changed thingsmore than the Christ child of Christmas. He split all of time into B.C. and A.D. “They all were lookingfor a King to slay their foes and lift them high. Thou came a little baby thing that made a woman cry.”Christmas turns the world upside down. The usual pattern of life is all set aside. The furniture isrearranged for the tree; the house is decorated as at no other time of the year. The messages in church,the songs and atmosphere are all different to fit the theme of this baby's coming. Isa. 9:6, “For to us achild is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will becalled Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Wow, what a baby!!This baby came to change all things, and we see the externals of this as symbols of the internal changesHe has made in millions of hearts.General Pickett faced the Union Army outside Richmond when news came of the birth of his new baby.The Confederate soldiers lit bonfires to celebrate with their general . The Union soldiers learned theexplanation for the rejoicing, and they sent word to General Grant. He ordered fires to be lit on theUnion side also, and put a flag of truce to send a letter of congratulations. Just by being born a babyone can change the flow if history and course of a war. A baby is so easy to love, and is a channel of love. A scientist said concerning the exchange of students between nations, “The best way to send anidea is to wrap it up in a person.” God had already demonstrated this truth by sending the idea of Hislove in the person of the Christ child.Someone wrote, “In a motion picture about an Scandinavian family that has come to the United States,the Christmas season brings unusual sadness. Lars, the father, is out of work, and the distressed familyhas no money with which to buy Christmas gifts for their daughter Gretta. Finally emotion runs sostrong that Gretta's mother cuts up wedding dress to make a doll dress for her daughter. Gretta calls herdoll Mary, and puts her into a small shoe box for a manager. With happy eyes Gretta tugs at the handof her father and says, “Come, Papa, come see the Christ child.” The father rather apathetically looksdown on the floor where his daughter has been playing. Gretta then says these striking words to herfather, “Papa, you've got to get down on your knees if you want to see the Christ child.”The story carries a profound theological truth, for Jesus Himself said that we must become as littlechildren to enter the Kingdom. It is easy to see that Jesus is saying that we must imitate Him. He asLord of all became a child that the door of the Kingdom might be open to all. Those who would gothrough that door must also get down on their knees and become children; children of God by faith in
 
Him. But this becoming childlike involves a spirit of simple faith that makes life a time of wonder, joyand growth, as well as one of serious battle. Christmas is the time of year when all Christians shouldbecome more childlike, and enter into the simple joys of life, such as the joys of being part of a family,both earthly and heavenly.A child sometimes can see answers that adults miss. I read of 9 year old boy named Wall y whoplayed the role of the inn keeper in a Christmas pageant. His job was to be stern and cruel when Maryand Joseph came looking for a room. He did quite well, and told them to go seek elsewhere, for he hadno room. Be gone he said, and as Mary and Joseph started to move across the stage so sad and lonely,the boy really entered into the scene and departed from the script. “Don't go Joseph,” Wally called out.“Bring Mary back.” Wally's face lit up with the brightness of a great idea, and he said with asmile,”You can have room.” The crowd let loose with a burst of laughter, but then silence, and thentears as they realized that Wally, considered slow, had come up with a creative solution to the problem.Love of Jesus made his tender heart find a way to make room for the Savior. Love always find a waywith those who are childlike.When a baby is born there are presents purchased and showers given, and it is a time for all who knowthe parents to rejoice with them in the celebration of a new life. Birth is a time of joy, and that is whythere is an annual celebration of birthdays, for there is no other event so worthy of joyful celebration asthe of birth. Babies and joy go together. How much more the greatest baby ever to be born. Nowonder we celebrate His birthday every year, and no wonder that it is the most joyous holiday of theyear.Let earth and heaven agree,Angels and men be joined,To celebrate with meThe Savior of mankind;To adore the all-atoning Lamb,And bless the sound of Jesus's name.Sandro Batticelli's famous painting of the Nativity in Briton's National Gallery pictures the angelsdancing like children playing ring around the rosy in the sky. He is saying by his art that no art evercreated more joy in this entire universe than the birth of Jesus on earth. Not to have a merry Christmasis not to have a Christian Christmas, for joy is the only proper emotion we can have as we celebrate thismost glorious of all births. Family joy is also vital for Christmas, for God did not enter history as partof a club, committee or organization. God entered history as part of a family and thereby dignified thefamily, and made it the center of His plan for all of history. Christmas is a family celebration, andwhatever increases family joy is good in the eyes of God. It is not only the family that prays together,but the family that plays together that stays together. Mary and Joseph and Jesus are called the holyfamily, for out of that family has come is all that leads families to God and to His best.Christmas is a time of play, for gifts to children are not usually all practical like clothes, lunch pails andbooks. Usually there are gifts for play, for childhood and playing are synonymous. Haywood Brownhas told the story of the three wise men with a recognition of this reality. The younger of the three heldthem up. The star was shining and the camels were waiting, yet he sat in his tent thinking. Finally hecame out with a little toy and the other two scolded him-”What folly has seized you? Is this a gift tobear to the King of Kings in the far country?” They had gold, frankincense and myrrh. The young boysaid, “For the King of Kings these are gifts of great richness, but this is for the child in Bethlehem.”He had a good point. The other gifts would be used by Mary and Joseph but not by baby Jesus. So
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