The next week the Leader met with the kids, and he read to them the second Christmas letter. The Leader reminded them of the introduction to last week’s letter:
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 letter I wrote to you about the best part of my creation, the creation of Adam and Eve! I made them very special; I gave them the ability to choose to love. I so longed for a loving relationship with humans, but it would not be true love if they did not have to choose to love me. Adam and Eve chose to follow the lies of Satan instead of loving me. Sin entered humanity and every human since then has been born with a sin nature.
I was very sad when this happened! I still wanted that close, loving relationship with humans, but the sin must be paid for. There is one thing you must understand about God; the Father, Holy Spirit and I have no sin, and we cannot tolerate sin for even a moment! We have a plan to pay for all the sins in the whole world, but that plan will be accomplished at the right time, many, many years after Adam and Eve first sinned.
When I made clothes for Adam and Eve, I had to kill an animal for their skin. I was teaching them that blood must be shed to show their sorrow for their sins. Later their first two sons, Cain and Abel, made sacrifices to show they were sorry for their sins. Abel sacrificed an animal from his flocks, but Cain just brought grain. I accepted Abel’s sacrifice because he had followed my teaching and blood had been shed to show his sorrow for his sins, but I could not accept Cain’s sacrifice because he did not follow my teaching, and his sacrifice did not involve shedding any blood. Cain was so mad that he killed his brother Abel! Because of this great sin, I had to banish Cain from his family. He was an outcast, but I did not kill him. I had mercy on Cain and set a mark on him so that everyone who saw him would know that I did not want him killed. I still loved Cain and was saddened by the choice he made, and I wanted him to come to me with a right attitude and seek forgiveness.
The years went on, and sin increased. Soon it got so bad that there was only one family that still believed in me and followed me, that was Noah’s family. The sin had to be punished, so I told Noah that a world-wide flood was going to destroy the earth. Because Noah and his family believed in me, I gave him directions to build a huge boat to rescue his family and two of each kind of animal. I still offered mercy to the other people, while the boat was under construction, I enabled Noah to become a preacher, and he told anyone who would listen about the flood that was coming because of their sin. No one listened to Noah, and when the flood came only Noah’s family and the animals were on the boat.
More years passed and once again the people of the earth chose not to love me. I gave them the law in the Old Testament of the Bible to show them that it is impossible for humans with a sin nature to live perfectly, they need help from me. I also sent Prophets to tell people about me and about how I loved them and wanted a relationship with them. The Prophets also told the people that I could not let sin go unpunished. The people needed to return to Me. Instead of turning to me, the people tried to prove that they were more righteous than their neighbors. They just did not seem to understand that none of them could live perfectly, none of them could measure up to my standards. They needed my plan to pay for their sins, but they wanted to keep trying to impress me with more animal sacrifices and more good works.
During all these years I still loved humans, and I wanted to have a loving relationship with them. It is true that a few people believed and followed me with their whole hearts, but most did not. People got the idea that I was mean and angry because I had to bring punishment for sin, but they did not see my love for them, and they did not see the sadness that I have. My sadness comes because their hearts are hard, and they do not think that they need me, and they do not understand that I love them.
Finally, it was the right time for my plan of salvation to come into the world. In my next letter I will tell you about my time on earth.
That’s all for now. I will write more later.
I love you!
Jesus