Dear Gary,

I have read both your and Flo Murry's Christmas essays and have been doing a lot of thinking about all the things said in both essays.

I have often thought it strange that those who are so opposed to supporting orphans homes do nothing themselves to fulfill the scriptural command to care for the fatherless. In like manner, those who are so opposed to any kind of celebration of Christmas because of its pagan beginnings never proclaim the wonder of His birth, nor teach about how that one event changed the course of history from that moment on. Why, even the way time is counted was changed! It seems to me that each of these positions shows some major "holes" in their theology.

The birth of Jesus Christ was the most wondrous event that has ever happened in the history of the world. Without His birth, he could not have been the sacrifice for our sins and without His sacrifice, we would still be in our sins. If He had not been born and sacrificed, then He could not have been resurrected and, therefore, we could never be resurrected. His marvelous birth was the beginning of the end for Satan and Satan knows it. That is why he tried so hard to kill Jesus when he was a baby and why he tries so hard to stop the celebration of His birth in any way he can today. Why do the atheists, etc., try so hard to stop any public display that proclaims His birth? I submit to you it is because the celebration of His birth proclaims His deity and His triumph over sin and reminds Satan that the battle has already been won and that he is on borrowed time!

For the brethren who are so opposed to the current manner of celebrating His birth in our culture, my question is what are you offering as alternative? Are you able to get millions of people thinking and talking about Christ for three or four weeks a year? What good deeds have you done, in the name of Jesus, for the poor and needy lately? Do you touch hundreds or thousands of people with the message that Jesus loves them, meet their needs and teach them about Jesus? Surely there must be some way to "rightly" observe His birth that would bring glory and honor to Him.

Does it really glorify God and Christ for us to ignore His birth as if it never happened; as if He just appeared on the earth without being born and was then offered for our sins? His virgin birth is an important, integral part of who He is! If it was important enough to God that He sent a multitude of angels to announce His birth, to put a special star in the sky, and to prophesy His birth thousands of years ahead of time, then I think we should acknowledge it in some significant way. My experience has been that it is mostly ignored in the church until we come across it in our progress through the Bible, then we methodically go through it. Shouldn't we be more ecstatic about the fact that Jesus left His place in Heaven to become a helpless infant in a realm that would hate Him and try to destroy Him, just so He could show us the way to live that we might follow Him and someday be with Him in Heaven?

I am reminded of the instance in Luke 19:37-40 when the disciples were rejoicing and praising God for all the mighty works that they had seen and the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Jesus' reply was, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." I wonder if other Christians were as silent as we are about celebrating the birth of Christ if maybe the rocks would indeed cry out!

I have been listening to "O Holy Night" a lot lately, and I must tell you that the words of that song have really "spoken" and ministered to me. I find myself crying as I listen to it, I just can't help myself. I think we have done Him such a disservice by doing nothing to proclaim His miraculous virgin birth. Surely God does not want us to be silent and look like pagans in our ignoring the celebration of His birth. Isn't it interesting that we refuse to celebrate His birth, as our culture celebrates it, because we say the way it is celebrated is pagan, but yet our not celebrating it makes us look like pagans to others. I find that to be ironic. I can tell you that I have never seen Christ or God glorified by our refusal to celebrate the birth of Christ. It seems there is no room for Him in our hearts today as there was no room for Him in the Inn at Bethlehem two thousand years ago. I guess things have not really changed very much have they?

When I hear those words, "Fall on your knees! O Hear, the angel voices!", my heart nearly breaks and I feel that I should fall on my knees and praise God for His unspeakable gift! I try not to sing along, and just listen, but I can't help myself. I can't seem to stop my singing along nor the tears rolling down my face. May there always to be room in the "inn" of my heart for Jesus Christ, my savior!

In Him for whom there was no place in the Inn,

Paulette