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17 Dec 2001 - WHY CHRISTMAS!!!
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here was once a man who didn't believe in God, and
>he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about
>religion and religious holidays,like Christmas. His
>wife, however, did believe, and she raised their
>children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite
>his disparaging comments.
>
> One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their
>children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm
>community in which they lived. She asked him to come,
>but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why
>would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?
>That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and
>he stayed home.
>
> A while later, the winds grew stronger and the
>snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the
>window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down
>to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard
>a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another
>thump. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few
>feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside
>to see what could have been beating on his window. In
>the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese.
>Apparently they had been flying south for the winter
>when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go
>on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no
>food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew
>around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly.
>A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.
>The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help
>them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay,
>he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend
>the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to
>the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and
>waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go
>inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly
>and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it
>could mean for them. The man tried to get their
>attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they
>moved further away.
>
> He went into the house and came with some bread,
>broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the
>barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting
>frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them
>toward the barn, but they only got more scared and
>scattered in every direction except toward the barn.
>Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where
>they would be warm and safe.
> "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't
>they see this is the only place where they can survive
>the storm?"
> He thought for a moment and realized that they just
>wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I
>could save them," he said out loud.
> Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of
>his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled
>around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released
>it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into
>the barn--and one by one the other geese followed it to
>safety.
>
> He stood silently for a moment as the words he had
>spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If
>only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he
>thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why
>would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"
> Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had
>done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing.
>God had His Son become like us so He could show us the
>way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he
>realized.
>
> As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul
>became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought.
>Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about, why
>Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished
>like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the
>snow, and prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for
>coming in human form to get me out of the storm!"
> --Author unknow
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You can email the author at csinclair@carolina.rr.com
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