Even though Christmas is over and done with in most people's minds (as is the tree now sitting by the roadside with leftover tinsel blowing in the wind), what we celebrate at Christmas is a story that lives on for all time and every day. I feel that we chunk the manger scene back in the attic or garage way too soon. His alive and active! Not inanimate and hidden in a box =/Before we launch into another new year and forget the past, I wanted to take one more Sunday to think about what we celebrate and remember during the month of December (and November and October and even now September by retail store chains).
In taking a look at what we celebrate it is very interesting to see how much of the story we know and re-enact in song and art and children's Christmas plays is very misconscrewed from what is actually written within the pages of Scripture (and even known about how things most likely were at the time of the event.)
Thus, I decided to not teach the story as it is most comonly known but rather as accurately as possible and let the misinformed marvel at what they have accepted as fact without checking the source!
If you wish to study for yourself the true facts surrounding the Christmas story found in Matthew and Luke, I suggest you start there. It really is a rather simple story with few concrete details (which has lead culture to fill in the blanks with a lot of assumed details). After this, I encourage you to study the history and culture of the times surrounding this remarkable event that occured around 3-4 BC. It will change your way of thinking about the story quite a bit!
Here are links to two resources I used to share my nativity lesson:
(I will be happy to loan this video to anyone of CBC who asks.)
