Gift of Jesus
Good morning. I just love Christmas songs, don’t you? You know who my favorite singer is? Ms. Brooke. She does such an awesome job. Now, I’m going to tell you what my favorite song is. I’m going to sing a little bit of it, and I’m going to see if your moms and dads know this song. You might not know it, but I think they will.
(Singing)
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.
Brown paper packages tied up with string.
These are a few of my favorite things.
Oh, you all sound so good. Thank you so much. Well, that’s a great song.
You know I’ve been thinking about that song? I’ve been thinking about Christmas, and I’ve been thinking that if there was a present like this, like they talk about in the song, a brown paper package tied up with string. If that was under your Christmas tree, would that be the first one that you grab on Christmas morning to open? I don’t think so. Probably you would grab the beautifully wrapped package in the shiny paper with the beautiful ribbons or in the wonderful gift bags like we see. So, I don’t know. If this was under my tree and it had my name on it, this would probably be the last one that I would get.
You know God sent us a gift and it was not wrapped in pretty package with beautiful ribbons. God sent the gift of his son. When his son was born, you know, his son was born to a young girl and Jesus’s earthly father was a carpenter. And, you know the story of where Jesus was born, right, Lily? He was born in a stable, in a manger. They placed him in a manger. And, when we see pictures of the manger scene in a storybook, it just looks so nice. The animals almost look like they’re smiling, and it looks like it would be warm and cozy in that barn.
But, I got to tell you I am an old farm girl, and I grew on the farm. We had a barn on our farm. And, you would walk into it and it would not be warm because there will be cracks in the wall where the wind would blow through. There would be hay everywhere. And, if the animals had been in the barn, they probably wouldn’t be smiling. They’d be doing something else that’s kind of yucky and gross, and it would stink in there.
So, we think about the manger scene being a sweet, pleasant place, but really it’s kind of like this plain brown package tied up with string. It was not a beautiful place but the gift that God sent was the most beautiful gift of all. He sent his son, Jesus, to finally die for our sins, so we could have the gift of salvation.
You know, I kind of rewrote the song that we were just singing. So, I’d like to use it as our prayer. So, would you bow your heads and think about this Christmas season? Think about the gift that’s the best gift of all.
Here’s the song that I rewrote:
(Singing)
Old tattered Bibles and people who read them.
Children who love God and work hard to please him.
Knowing that Christmas is all about love,
And the best present came from God above.
Thank you, Father, for this Christmas, and for loving us.
You loved us so much that you sent us your son,
The greatest gift of all. Amen.