Some Children’s Christmas jokes: (http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/xmas/jokes.html )
What’s the difference between a Christmas alphabet and an ordinary alphabet?
A Christmas alphabet has no l (noel-get it?)
Why is it always cold at Christmas?
Because it’s Decemberrrrrrrrrr
What do you have in December that you don’t have in any other month?
The letter “D”
What did Adam say the day before Christmas?
“It’s Christmas, Eve!!!”
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:10-14
Marry Shelley wrote a best-selling book as a teenager-she would never accomplish anything of such notoriety for the rest of her life. She grew up in a home which often had artists and scientists and philosophers over for dinner and discussion. One of those discussions was about whether human beings start out as a blank slate (a tabula rasa) or if they have an inborn fault that needs to be worked out. They also had discussed scary tales, and decided to compete to see who could write the best scary tale. Incorporating both ideas, along with some recent scientific discoveries that electricity somehow was related to muscle movement, even of dead tissue, and, therefore, biological life, she wrote a story about a scientist who put dead body parts gathered from various places together, then animated the conglomerate creature with electricity. Dr. Frankenstein had brought the once dead to life. Mary Shelley’s point was that this monstrous creature was actually caring and needy, but because of his hideous appearance he was ill-treated and, therefore, became evil. The Monster was a tabula rasa ill written upon.
The Bible has an almost opposite story to tell about Jesus. His heritage was tainted, and his genealogy connected him to imperfect people, yet He was, nevertheless, pure, and true, and wise, and great. This might be because He was not merely the Son of Man. He was the Only Begotten Son of God.
The three Genealogies and Christmas Stories in the Bible:
Matthew 1-3 The list is made, going back to Abraham & the promises God made to him. Jesus is connected to those promises. He is the fulfillment of them. Wise men come from the East, having seen a star-even Creation itself announces the birth of this child, mute stars speak, while the deaf ears of humanity sit in silence. To the Earth a Light has shined, yet men continue in blind darkness.
Luke 1-3 The Birth is described first, beginning with the parents of John the Baptist, then describing the angels appearances to Mary, and the shepherds.
John 1:1-18 John has his own Genealogy-and his own Christmas story.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1; 14
George Matheson
was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842. He had only partial sight. By the time he was college age, he was totally blind but graduated with honors from the University of Scotland. His beloved sister cared for him and read to him, so he was able to become one of the most outstanding ministers in the history of Scotland. He was engaged until his fiancé learned that was nothing the doctors could do, that George would be completely blind for the rest of his life. She told him that she could not go through life with a blind man.
On the day of his beloved sister’s wedding, George Matheson was left alone at home. Left to his own thoughts, utterly alone, feeling abandoned by the one who had cared for him so many years, he felt the pangs of despair. Who will care for him, a blind man? He describes the night,"I was alone in the manse, the night of my sister's marriage. Something happened to me which is known only to myself and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. The whole work was completed in five minutes." (June 6,1882)
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O light that foll’west all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
Looking back over his life, he wrote that his was “an obstructed life, a circumscribed life… but a life of quenchless hopefulness, a life which has beaten persistently against the cage of circumstance, and which even at the time of abandoned work has said not “Good night” but “Good morning.” Toward the end of his ministry, he was the pastor at the 2,000-member St. Bernard's Parish Church in Edinburgh.
(story edited a bit from http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/hymns/o08.html and http://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/george-matheson-~-love-that-wilt-not-let-me-go-11568091.html )
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1:21-23
This prophecy, originally given to Ahab as a sign God’s judgment was about to fall, is transformed by God into a sign of hope, that the judgment of God and destiny of humanity can be changed. Jesus’ birth teaches us that the past does not determine the future-that we are NOT a clean slate from birth, like the Frankenstein monster, but that we are, like the monster, made of death and for death, yet God has designed a means of a new birth of life. The first Adam fell. The second Adam rose. And in Him we too can rise from the dead.
Christmas is the time we remember that Jesus was born-God with us-The Eternal took upon Himself time. The Omnipotent took upon Himself frailty. The Perfect took upon Himself imperfection. By this means He demonstrates that we, imperfect, frail creatures can lift our eyes toward perfection-that we time-bound animals can take upon ourselves the mantle of Eternity.
When Jesus was resurrected He breathed on His disciples and said “as the Father sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21). We are designed and destined to take this message through our lives, to become a symbol of hope, and a sign peace for all people. This Christmas season I exhort you to BE Christmas for the community God has designed you to serve.
