When my wife was little, her family was Amish. Barn raisings, buggies, high-stepping horses, shoofly pies—the whole postcard. Later, they left that life and became mainstream farmers. The suspenders and bonnets were gone, but they remained hard-working, no nonsense, sweep-the-porch folks. As good-natured a family as homemade jam and bread. I grew up taking in the city. Mom and I would hop the...
Everyone loves a good story. The architecture of a great story speaks to the deepest longings of our hearts. Love never loses, goodness and truth always win, and at the most desperate point of need, a rescue comes. The Christmas message tells a story with these very elements, detailing God’s remarkable plan that starts with a baby in a manger and continues with a ministry that would forever...
Many years ago, our family went to a Christmas party. A children’s gift shop was offered for kids to shop for family Christmas gifts. You know the type: often stocked with dollar store finds, silly items, or discarded, unwanted gifts no one else claimed. Our kids enjoyed shopping for gifts, wrapping them, and returning home with bags of goodies. One of our sons, AJ, was bursting with pride over...
One of my best friends went to Harvard. Our freshman year, we came back for Christmas break and exchanged stories from our different colleges. He told me that their semester hadn’t ended. He had to study for finals and work on projects during the break. How horrible! I thought. That would be so stressful, wouldn’t it? How could a person enjoy the holidays with pressure like that? Now, as a...
Martin Luther loved Christmas. He preached extensively about it, wrote two Christmas hymns, and is even credited with inventing the Christmas tree. As the story goes, the 16th century reformer was walking home one winter evening and was so captivated by the brilliance of stars shining through evergreen tress that he wanted to recreate the scene for his family. He put up a tree in the main room...
