There’s an old story told about an older farmer who wanted nothing to do with church. “If there’s a God,” this man thought, “then there’s no way he would come down to the earth as a human being.” The Christmas story made no sense to him. An all-powerful God taking on human flesh? Ridiculous.

One Christmas Eve, the farmer’s wife headed to church for the service, but he stayed at home. That particular evening, the temperature dropped sharply and soon, puffy flakes of snow began to fall. The man looked out his back window to enjoy the sight. As he watched, he noticed a small flock of birds in his yard. They seemed to be freezing in the harsh temperatures. He knew these birds would not be able to survive the weather without shelter. Fortunately, the man had an old barn out back. It was relatively warm and safe from the elements, so he put on his winter coat and boots and tramped out into the snow to open the barn doors. The birds scattered as he walked, but not one entered the barn. He got some bread and left a trail of crumbs to entice the birds inside, but they ignored the food and continued shivering in the cold. Running out of ideas, he tried scaring them into the barn by waving his arms and chasing them, but they flew every direction except to safety.

“If only I could become a bird,” the man thought. “Then maybe I could show them the way to safety.” At that moment the far-off church bells began to ring across the town, and the man realized why Jesus came down to earth as a human being. Like the birds, we needed someone to come to us and show us the way to salvation.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (John 1:14). A more modern translation says it this way, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood,” (Message translation). He entered our cold, broken world and opened the door to life. The miracle of Christmas is that God cared enough about you and me to become a human in order to show us how to live and ultimately, to die for our salvation.

Merry Christmas from the Kewanee Ministerial Association! I hope you will consider attending a church service as part of your holiday plans this season.

John Reside
Minister at First Christian Church, Kewanee

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.

***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association