Ah, Christmas. The scent of

freshly-cut pine. Little boys and girls who can hardly sleep because they're

so excited about what Santa might bring. Wrapping paper strewn about the

living room. Cookies, cider, chocolate fudge. Store-bought fruitcakes

as heavy and as tasty as cement blocks.

Christmas. The sights, sounds,

and scents that fill our memories.

For Christians, Christmas brings

additional imagesimages from the Bible. An angel visited Mary and Joseph

to tell them Mary would give birth to a son. A census sent Mary and Joseph

to Bethlehem, where Mary delivered Jesus in a stable. They wrapped Jesus

in scraps of cloth and laid Him in a manger. A choir of angels announced

the birth to some nearby shepherds. Later three magi from the east followed

a star to Bethlehem.

Christmas.

But there are other pictures

of Christmas in the Biblethe same story told from different perspectives.

For example, the twelfth chapter

of Revelation describes Mary as a pregnant woman clothed with the sun.

The moon glows beneath her feet, and a crown with twelve stars adorns

her head. As she's about to give birth, an enormous red dragon appears.

The dragon has seven heads and ten horns. With his tail he sweeps a third

of the stars out of the sky and flings them to the earth. The dragon then

crouches before the woman hoping to devour the newborn child the moment

He is born. Instead, though, the child is snatched up by God to sit on

the throne and rule the nations with an iron scepter.

Try to depict that one in a

nativity scene.

Then there's the Gospel of

John. In John's Gospel you'll find no dragons. No choirs of angels. Not

even a manger. Instead, John begins his Christmas story with a nod to

the eternal past, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God" (1:1; "the Word" refers

to Jesus). Then, a few verses later John explains that Jesus "became

flesh and made his dwelling among us" (1:14).

But the heart of John's Christmas

story reveals why Jesus became flesh: "To all who received him, to

those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of

God" (1:12).

Therein lies the crux of the

Christmas story, the purpose behind the manger and the choir of angels.

Jesus came to make us a part of God's family.

Holiday festivities are enjoyable.

Carols, cider, even gifts and decorated trees help make Christmas a memorable

experience. But let's not throw out the baby with the eggnog. The baby

is our hope. He came to adopt us into an eternal family. Jesus came to

take us home.

Last Christmas brought a special

blessing for a couple in our church. Joel and Erin Jones had been attempting

for over a year to adopt a little girl from Guatemala. They named her

Kay.

Miles of red tape, reams of

forms that passed through countless offices, and two governments that

didn't work together very smoothly all combined to keep Kay in Guatemala,

and Joel and Erin praying for the day when they could touch, hug, and

kiss their daughter.

December 26 th of

last year Joel and Erin stepped off an airplane in Guatemala. The hassle

and paperwork of the previous year melted away as Joel and Erin held Kay

in their arms for the first time.

They hopped back on the airplane,

anxious to sing to Kay in her new rocking chair, then to lay her in her

new bed, in her new nursery, in her new home.

Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Joel and Erin left their world for a time. They entered Kay's world. Then

they brought her home.

That's the picture of Christmas.

Jesus left His world. Entered ours. To take us home.

[The community is invited to

a Candlelight Christmas Eve service on December 24 th at 6:00

p.m., at Fayetteville Christian Church, where Daniel Overdorf is the Sr.

Minister. The church building is located at New Hope and Hickory Roads

in Fayetteville. Daniel may be contacted at the church office, 770-461-8763,

or [email protected]. ]

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