Friday, December 01, 2006

A Dangerous Christmas

I'll never forget the Christmas season seven years ago when my son Joshua was 3. I was sitting at work, feverishly pounding away on my computer, when my wife called. 'You'll never believe what happened', she said.

In spite of repeated 'hands off' warnings, Joshua had taken a breakable Christmas bulb off the tree and had dropped it on the brick fireplace. The bulb was in about 100 sharp pieces and my son's curiosity lead to a bloody finger and an irate wife.

This led to a firmer 'look don't touch' policy with our Christmas tree! It also led to grandma's purchase of a kids' tree with non-breakable kids' ornaments. This would be a tree that the kids could embrace ... literally.

Until we had implemented the alternate Christmas tree, Joshua was faced with the unpleasant prospect of not being able to physically bond with the Christmas tree. If he had observed the ornaments instead of playing with them, we would not have had to place a force field around the tree!

Christmas is all about God's Son coming down to earth, being born as a human baby, and taking the punishment we deserve for our sins by dying on the cross in our place. In this manner the hound of heaven sent Jesus down to earth to fix our sin problem. If we believe that Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross was sufficient to reconcile us to God, then we are His children!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

All through life we are faced with "look but don't touch" situations. It is better to learn this concept as a child than as an adult. Fortunately, we have a patient and loving God who will "always give us a way out" of sins temptation.

Anonymous said...

I know what I'm doing when I get hope today :-)! Never thought about throwing breakable Christmas ornaments against the fireplace, what fun I've missed out on. Thankfully, we have a loving Father in Heaven who does not cast us aside as the sinners we are.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dad,

You put another picture on your blog of me?! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love it when you do that! In each episode you're putting 15 pictures of me. Thank you again!

Anonymous said...

Dear Dad,

I do not remember the Christmas when I was three and that happened. I am really confused but thank you for putting another picture of meeeeeeee. Good bye!

Anonymous said...

You have a great memory and that story was CRUNK!