Giving Our Children The Whole Christmas Story – Part 1
Christmas always springs mixed emotions in my heart. I love the biblical narrative of how our God became man, so we could become children of God. But in America we’ve grown blasphemously dull to the holy awe of this all-important event. Could it be in focusing on the chapter we have lost the epic grander of the novel? More importantly, do our children think Christmas is about a poor, cute baby who was born on a cold winter night in December (which of course, is not biblical)? What might our nativity story look like if all we knew about it was what Scripture told us?
Long ago, before time, before creation, before angels and cherubims a promise was made. The Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – formed a plan and then covenanted among themselves to do all to see the plan fulfilled. The plan was eternal life for man.
In hope of eternal life. Which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began (Titus 1:2).
Before the moment that would be marked as “the Beginning”, God saw a way for sinful man to have eternal life. The night before His death, Jesus spoke of this unseen preparation as the reason He came into the world.
“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:2-5).
So a promise was made among the Godhead along with a plan to see it through. Then time was created, the world made, and man formed. God breathed His own breath into the earthy-form and dust became Adam. His body and soul were created to be eternal and God even warned him of the one tree that would bring death to him. All was in place for Mankind to live eternally with God. Then the tempter came. A lie was spoken. A choice given. And we choose poorly. Death entered the world. But a promise had been made; and since it was impossible for God to lie, the promise had to be kept.
Kenzi Knapp is a follower of Christ, homeschool graduate and student of history. A fourth generation Missourian she enjoys writing about daily life enrolled in Gods great course of faith and His story throughout the ages at her blog, Honey Rock Hills.
