REFLECTIONS

What

is all about
O
n a beautiful December Saturday, we piled our boys and a friend That’s what Jesus
into our car and headed for a small park on the Chattahoochee does with you: He
River (in the southern United States). While the three boys ran takes you, dirty as
along the riverbank, Bob and I set out for a stroll on the beach but found you are, and He
broken bottles, discarded cans and tossed hamburger bags everywhere. washes away your
The beach’s beauty had perished beneath litter. sin and your past. He
even washes away
Idly we began to pick up cans to recycle. When the boys saw what we your evil thoughts, re-
were doing they came to help, and with all those workers, we picked up placing them with
paper, too. Soon we cleaned a wide stretch of the beach. new thoughts from
His Word. And then
God so loved you and me that He sent Someone to “clean us when He has you all
up.” That’s what Christmas is all about. nice and clean, He
gives you a new
Beneath the litter of our broken lives, discarded friendships, and forgot- start—new attitudes,
ten promises, God still sees the beauty of who we are meant to be. He new energy, new abil-
sends Jesus with love and the power to “clean us up”—not merely to dis- ity to love and new
card our ”litter,” but to restore us to whole lives, healed friendships and reasons for living.
new intent. All He asks from us is our belief that He can work a mighty Isn’t He wonderful?
work in our lives. —David Brandt Berg
—Patricia Houck Sprinkle

Giving a child away …

Three-year-old Barnabas, two-month-old David and I were traveling alone at
Christmas. As we left the plane, a helpful stewardess said, “I think I’ll take that cute baby
home with me.”
Barnabas stared up at her in horror. “You can’t! He’s our baby, and very precious to
us!” I have treasured that remark through the many brotherly battles over the years.
I also think of it at Christmas and realize, in a small way, just what it was that God
gave. What would it take for me to send one of my precious sons to a faraway land to
grow up among strangers, suffer their scorn and die from their hostility?
God gave a precious Gift out of an incredible love.
That’s what Christmas is all about.
—Patricia Houck Sprinkle

F or God so loved the world, that He

gave His only begotten Son, that who-
soever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.—John 3:16.

R59 GP Christmas. Salvation.