Unto You a Child is Born

For today in the city of David there

has been born for you a Savior,

who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

“Why don’t they know the Christmas story? Why is the girl crying? Does their mother even know they are at the church??”

That night, during our bedtime reading, my two sons stopped me every few lines to ask questions. Finally, we made it to the last chapter. I get a lump in my throat every time I read the end of the story. It is about the family of “bad” kids who come to church seeking Sunday school donuts, and end up stealing money from the collection plate. Then they take over all the roles in the annual Christmas pageant. By the night of the show, it is those misfits and trouble makers who find the true meaning of Christmas as they learn the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

I have read the book a few times before, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by the late Barbara Robinson. I can’t say that I know about the author’s faith or what she truly believed at the time of writing this book. I just know how God used the story to teach me as I read it to my own children.

In the book, the narrator is one of the “church kids,” and her mom becomes the director of that year’s pageant. She watches and takes note of every bad thing the outsiders do during rehearsals. Many of the children who have grown up in the church are bored with the story; they have heard it a million times and could recite it by memory. But to those children who have never heard it before, it is all new and riveting and incredible.

As I read, I realized that I grew up a “church kid” and my sons are “church kids”. We know the story from Luke 2 inside out. We can recite the verses. But does it move our hearts like it did the first time we heard it??

Are we still overwhelmed with joy and gratitude to read about Christmas? Do we still marvel that the Father would send His son, that the Lord Jesus would leave His throne in heaven to be born a little baby in Bethlehem, live on earth as a man, be crucified for our sins, and rise again to defeat sin and death?

“Why don’t the kids know the story?” my sons asked. Why don’t they know?? And then it hit me. Do I go through life just assuming that everyone has heard it like I have? “Well”, I answered them, “they had never been to church before, they never read the Bible. They don’t know that Christmas is about Jesus like we do.”

And then I began to think to myself “who do I know that might never have heard the TRUE story of Christmas?” How many people might think that it is all just a holiday about Santa, and presents, and decorations? Maybe there are more people than I realize who don’t know. And maybe I need to tell them, and teach my children to share the story too?!

When they had seen Him, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it were amazed about the things which were told them by the shepherds. Luke 2:17

In the book, the youngest (and meanest) of the bad children decides she will play the angel of the Lord. She marches on stage and yells at everyone, “Hey! Unto you a child is born!”. Maybe this Christmas, we who know and believe need to shout out with more excitement this joyful news to the dark and lost world. Everyone needs to hear the good news that the Messiah has come!

And then as I read to my sons, we came to my favorite scene in the entire book. The oldest daughter in the family plays Mary in the pageant. Normally, she is loud and mean, and a bully. Yet on that night she holds a baby doll representing the baby Jesus gently on her shoulder, and she cries silent tears.

My oldest son asked me, “Why is she crying?” And the only answer I could come up with was, “because Jesus touched her heart.”

No matter who we are, how old or young, how good or bad, when God saves us, and we come to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord it is because He touches us changes our hearts.

I realized one last profound thing from that story. The children in the bad family change when they hear God’s Word. His truth pierces us, reveals our sin and our need for Him, and it transforms us. Baby Jesus was and is the Word made flesh.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

I love Christmastime, the whole season. I love the decorations and the glittering lights, the music and the cheer. But each year I have been a mother watching my sons grow, I am more struck by the true miracle of Christmas. I am overwhelmed by the hope that has been given to us in the form of a baby born in a manger, who would one day face a cross.

I need to tell more people the REAL good news of Christmas!! There is hope, there is peace, there is salvation because…unto you a child is born!

And so the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:10-12