The splendor of Christmas is always best viewed through the eyes of a child. Hi, I’m Tom Ellsworth from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church with a minute message.
Each December as we set up our nativity scene I smile to remember a Christmas when our oldest daughter Emily was very young. I had arranged the characters in the scene as always with the shepherd and sheep peering in from the outside. Sometime later, however, I passed the nativity and discovered the sheep were all inside the stable. I didn’t think much about it as I took them out but later in the day, they were back in again. Now I was puzzled. Neither my wife nor I had touched them, so how did they get there? We soon discovered that Emily had used a step stool to reach the table and rearrange the sheep. Her explanation? “Sheep belong in a barn.”
She was right – livestock belongs in a stable; a manger is no place to lay a baby. Sheep are at home around a feeding trough, but the infant Christ deserved better. But with such a humble birth, God demonstrated his incredible love for all people. From the least to the greatest, he welcomes us. Stay close to his manger this Christmas!