“On the night Jesus was born, shepherds were watching their sheep. Suddenly, an angel stood before them, and God’s light shined all around. The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring joyful news to all people.
Today, in the town of Bethlehem, a Savior has been born! He is lying in a manger.’ ”
–The Beginner’s Bible
One of my favorite Christmas memories is of something that took place almost two decades ago, when our older son was a preschooler. He was a rough-and-tumble boy with big brown eyes and a jumble of blond curls. He was usually happy, and was curious about a lot of things. (I learned more about dinosaurs and types of trucks during that time than I thought possible!)
One of the things he loved was Christmas. We made cards and crafts together. We baked cookies. He liked to wrap gifts. They didn’t always look terribly polished, but they definitely looked like they were wrapped with love.
And he loved the Nativity story. We read it from several different versions and books, and sometimes he “read” it to his stuffed animals or the cat.
It was important to us that our children not see God as far away and unreachable; one expression of this was that we had a sturdy Nativity set, one that could withstand little hands.
As the Christmas season wore on that year, more and more animals made an appearance at our manger. There were the cows and sheep, horses and goats from his farm set.
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