This year I spent time teaching my children about the true meaning of Christmas.
There seems to be confusion and reluctance among my generation to teach our children those things that we were taught by our more traditional parents.
I want my kids to know not a perfunctory history, not a convoluted spin. I want them to know the pure love that comes from understanding the essence of that magnificent day when Jesus was born in the city of David.
Here are the things I shared with them:
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First, a few weeks ago, we read Luke 2 together as a family. We have children ranging in age from 16 down to 2 years old, so we didn’t read the whole chapter. We read the first 20 verses.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Luke 2:15-18
The shepherds learned truth, acted on it with haste, and opened their mouths to tell other people. From them began the propagation of the best news the world had ever received: the Savior of mankind had been born.
The birth of Jesus Christ led to the gospel of Jesus Christ, marking an end of the rule of the Law of Moses. In the place of government by “an eye for an eye” came “turn the other cheek.”
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5:38-39
Jesus was born into a world of oppression in the meridian of time. From the WSJ article “In Hoc Anno Domini“:
“There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?”
And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
The impact of those teachings of love have profoundly changed the world for good. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will continue to light the hearts of people throughout the earth, wiping out the old ways, the bitter, the selfish, and the proud, until joy, peace, and love have won.
The culminating moment in this movement will be the second coming of Jesus Christ, when He returns in glory to put the finishing touches on the gathering of Israel, or those who have let God prevail in their lives.
After teaching these facts to my children, we enjoyed this masterful video depicting the precious and miraculous events surrounding the birth of the Christ child. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas and much love to you all!
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