The next week the Leader met with the kids, and he read to them the last Christmas letter. The Leader reminded them of the introduction to previous letters:
Imagine Jesus wrote five letters to you just before Christmas to explain the meaning behind His coming to earth and being born as a baby. What would Jesus put in those letters? What would He say? How would He say it?
In this series we will attempt to create letters that Jesus might have written. At best this will be a feeble attempt to express the heart and feelings of our Savior, and it should be recognized as a very feeble attempt!
Dear People:
This is Jesus, how are you doing? In my previous letters I wrote to you about the great plan for providing a way for the sins of humans to be forgiven. I wrote about God’s great love for humans, and about His holiness that cannot tolerate even the presence of sin. The Father in heaven sent me, His Son, to earth to make the payment for sins once and for all. To do this I had to become human, I was still 100 percent God, but now I was also 100 percent human. I told you about how I lived on earth, experienced all the human emotions, ministered to people, died on the cross to pay for sins, rose from the dead three days later, and went back into heaven to prepare a place for believers to live for eternity! I have not yet told you about how I became a human. My birth is remembered and celebrated at Christmas time, and since Christmas comes this week, I saved this awesome part of the story for this week.
My birth was the most unusual birth in all of eternity! An angel visited a young teenage girl named Mary and told her that she had been chosen to be the mother of the promised savior of the world! Mary wondered how this would happen since she was not married yet. The angel told Mary that God’s Holy Spirit was cause the baby to begin growing inside of Mary. There would be no man involved in the process, and the baby would be the Son of God as well as Mary’s son. Because the baby was the Son of God, He would not be born with a sin nature like all other humans.
It happened just as the angel said, soon Mary could feel the baby beginning to grow inside of her. Of course, all the people around Mary did not understand what had happened and they thought that Mary was lying to them when she said that God caused the baby to grow inside her. Mary was engaged to a good man named Joseph and he was going to break up with her because of this scandal, but God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream and told him that God really did cause the baby to grow inside of Mary. The angel told Joseph that he had to do two things: he was to go ahead and get married to Mary, and when the baby was born, Joseph was to name him Jesus. Joseph obeyed the angel.
It felt very strange to me to begin growing inside of Mary. The Father and I had created the whole universe, and now I was a very little baby inside of Mary. I felt warm and cozy, but I wanted to get out and begin my life, so I was restless sometimes and kicked Mary from the inside. That did not feel good to Mary, but that is what babies do!
One day Mary and Joseph were very upset! They had just received word that the Roman government wanted everyone to go to the hometown of their ancestors so that they could be counted and then taxed! No one wanted to do this, but Joseph and Mary were especially upset because this trip would happen right about the time I was supposed to be born! I did not get upset because I knew that in the Old Testament of the Bible, in the book of Micah, it was predicted that I would be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was hometown of Joseph’s ancestor, King David. I knew we had to go there, and I knew that I would not be born until we got there!
The trip to Bethlehem was very hard on Mary! She was not feeling well at all and was very uncomfortable. She walked part of the way, and part of the way she had to ride on an animal. Joseph had to walk all the way. It took several days to get to Bethlehem and when we got there the whole town was full of people who had to travel there to be counted. Joseph could not find any place for them to stay! Eventually Joseph was allowed to take Mary into a stable so that she could sleep in the warm hay.
That night I was born in that stable! It was not a pleasant place; it was smelly and there were animals all around! It was also cold and drafty. Mary was tired and very cold after I was born, but she wrapped me snuggly in some strips of cloth and held me close to try to warm me. I could feel her shivering, she was so cold, but she was not worried about herself, she was trying to keep me as warm as possible! Mothers are so awesome!
Just when I was getting sleepy and Mary was about to get some much-needed rest, there were suddenly voices of a group of men! They were coming into the stable, and they were looking for me! Immediately Joseph thought that they had come to try to harm me, and Joseph got ready to try to protect me, but these men said that they had been sent by angels to find the baby that was born in this stable tonight! They said that an angel appeared to them while they were tending their flock of sheep out in the fields. The whole field was filled with the bright glory of God! The angel announced that I had been born in Bethlehem and that I was the promised Savior! Then a huge group of angels appeared, and they were praising God for this wonderful thing that had happened! After the angels left, the shepherds immediately came looking for me, and here they were! Mary and I could not rest yet! The shepherds stayed for awhile looking at me and worshipping me. Joseph and Mary listened to everything the shepherds said and treasured all the precious words from the shepherds. After a while the shepherds realized that both Mary and I needed to sleep, so they left the stable. We could hear them as they went down the street telling everyone they met about the wonderful baby that had been born in the stable! Joseph and Mary realized that there would probably be other people coming to the stable to see me, but no one did. Apparently, no one believed what the shepherds were saying to them.
Finally, it was time for us to get some sleep! Joseph made a place for himself by the door of the stable so that no one could come in without him knowing about it. I was comfortable in the feed trough that they had filled with hay; it was a very cozy bed. Mary made a nest in the hay right beside my feed trough, she looked very comfortable and peaceful! I loved my mother and Joseph!
Joseph and Mary were so tired that they fell asleep almost immediately. I should have fallen asleep too, but my tummy hurt! It was a very strange feeling! For the first time in all eternity, I felt hunger pains! What is a baby to do in a situation like this? There was only one thing to do! I opened my mouth as wide as I could and filled that stable with a baby’s hunger cry! Mary opened her eyes! She looked so tired, but she knew what she had to do. She got up out of her cozy bed in the hay and fed me! Mothers are so awesome!
While I was just a little baby, I got to see many different people and hear many things. I saw many good people and some bad people. I saw many human emotions displayed, but the best emotion was my mother’s love for me! A mother’s love is the closest thing on this earth to God’s love!
When I was taken to the temple to be presented, we met a very old man and a very old woman who were both prophets of God. They encouraged Joseph and Mary and reminded them that I truly was the Son of God! The old man also told Mary that she would experience deep sorrow and pain because of me! I knew what the old man was talking about, I knew that my mother Mary would one day stand at the cross while I was being killed to pay for the sins of the whole world!
Later Wise Men came from the far east. They had followed a special star that God had put in the sky to announce my birth. These Wise Men had traveled a long distance to see me and worship me! They also gave some very expensive gifts to Joseph and Mary!
After the Wise Men had left God sent an angel in to dream to Joseph and told him to take Mary and me and run for our lives! The king of Israel, King Herod, was sending soldiers to kill me! The angel told Joseph to go to Egypt and stay there until the angel told Joseph it was safe to come back! So we went to Egypt, those expensive gifts that the Wise Men gave to us paid for the trip and kept us alive until Joseph could find work.
After King Herod had died, the angel told Jospeh that it was safe to return, so we came back to Israel. We did not go back to Bethlehem, but we went to the town of Nazareth where Joseph and Mary had grown up.
So, that is how the path to the cross began, in that little stable in the small town of Bethlehem. I know that most of the time the cross is not mentioned in the Christmas story, but the whole point of me coming to earth and being born as a baby was so that I could experience what it was like to be a human and to experience life as a human, yet without sin. I came to be the one and only perfect sacrifice that would pay for the sins of the entire world. That sacrifice, that destiny for me, was the cross. Even though I enjoyed the comfort of those early moments, especially with my mother, my eyes and thoughts were on the cross!
When I made that sacrifice on the cross, I did pay for all the sins ever committed, but it does you no good unless you accept it. Just like you open gifts at Christmas time, you need to accept the gift of forgiveness. You can do this by believing in Me and praying and asking me to give you that forgiveness and come into your life. At that moment you will be forgiven, my Holy Spirit will come into your heart to live, and you will be on your way to heaven after this life on earth is done. If you have not ever done this, please do it today!
I love you!
Jesus