Christmas Through the Eyes of Little Munchkins

In our sermon series, we've been looking at Christmas through the eyes of various characters in the original Christmas story. We ended the series as a church on Christmas Eve with "Christmas Through the Eyes of Dublin Bible Church." Although we were out of town for this event, all reports I've had are that it was a great way to cap off our series.

Instead of being with my church family, Lynne and I were with her family in Kansas City (I'm in the KC airport as I write, waiting for my flight to Atlanta so that I can then drive to Dallas for a week of class). We brought Lynne's parents from St. Louis to her brother's family north of KC. We even got the treat of the most snow on Christmas Day in KC since before I was born.

The delight of our trip was being with our nieces, Elise (6) and Megan (4). We got to see Christmas through the eyes of these two munchkin bundles of fun. Of course they were excited about the presents (happily, they enjoyed giving as much as receiving). But at several turns throughout the week, we asked them in different ways what Christmas means. Without fail, they responded that we're celebrating the birth of Jesus, who came in order to pay for our sins on the Cross.

We thought we were teaching them.

After a wonderful Christmas dinner of prime rib, Elise asked if we were going to have some sort of party for Jesus' birthday. Quickly, their mother (Talli) said, "Sure!" I could tell that nothing was already planned, but that we couldn't miss this opportunity. So, we took the Christmas cake, put candles in it, and the girls led us in singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

How simply logical. If the holiday is really about celebrating His birth, we should do what we do for birthdays. You can't help but appreciate how their way of "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" is more immediate and rational than all the theologically didactic ways we can construct. We absolutely must teach them, and their request was born out of the more didactic moments. But Christmas through their eyes also means we should sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

They were teaching us.

May this be a wonderful birthday party for Jesus in your home this year.