The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
NIV
The First Christmas
(written by the animals)
The night air was crisp and the sheep were
out in the fields with the shepherds for the
night.
So many people were coming to town and
everything was crazy. We had visitors from
all over the place, and our master brought a
bunch of extra animals to stay with us
for the night.
Not too long after dark we settled in for
the night and one by one began to fall
asleep. We didn't realize with all the
excitement just how tired we really were.
Well after we were asleep, we were
awakened by the sounds of a man and a
woman coming into the stable. Where are
we going to put another donkey for the
night? We were full up as it was.
We saw the man laying a blanket on the
straw and the woman lay down on the
blanket. That was the most peculiar sight
I had ever seen. People were going to be
sleeping in OUR stable!
One by one each animal was awakened
by the commotion and was just as
shocked as we were. Just as quickly
as we were awakened, we fell back asleep;
until that wonderful moment, that is.
It seemed like we had just fallen asleep
when all of a sudden we heard a strange
sound coming by the woman. We had never
heard anything like that before. It
almost looked like the woman was holding
something in her arms and she was
speaking to whatever she was holding.
One by one we made our way over
to see what the woman had.
It was a BABY!
The most beautiful baby, and he had
been born right here in our stable.
How exciting!
As we were gazing at the baby,
a bright star was shining just
above us. The stable was just
glowing from the star light.
Before long the shepherds came
because they had seen the bight
star shining and wanted to see
why it was shining over the stable.
How exciting, and we thought it
was exciting to have all the
visitors, but there was something
extra special about this visitor,
we just didn't know why at the time.
As the shepherds were talking to the
man and woman, we heard them say that
this baby was the SON OF GOD.
As the night went on, we had more
people come visit the stable to see
the newborn baby. The Mother bent
and kissed the baby and told everyone,
"This is Jesus. God has given Him to
us. He has been sent to save mankind
from their sins. He is a King,
because He is the SON OF GOD."
Before long, there were men that
came from very far away to see the
baby. They brought Him special gifts.
We wanted to give the baby something
special too. Some of the sheep gave
their wool to keep the baby warm.
The cows helped out by giving milk
for the baby. Some of the other
animals gave up their spots in the
stable to provide a comfortable
place for the mother and baby to rest.
If we could give something to this
king, surely everyone would want to.
But as time went on we found so many
people that hated Jesus. One ruler
even had Him publicly humiliated
and then crucified.
It was then that we realized that
even though we didn't have much to
give Jesus, we gave Him all we had.
And in God's eyes,
that is all that matters.
What are you going to give Jesus
for Christmas this year?
Jesus died for you,
why not give Him your heart?
