A Classic Nativity Devotional (Hardback)

Chapter One

In the Bleak Midwinter In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign. In the bleak midwinter A stable-place sufficed The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim Worship night and day, Breastful of milk And a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him, Whom angels Fall before, The ox and ass and camel Which adore.

Angels and archangels May have gathered there, Cherubim and seraphim Thronged the air, But His mother only, In her maiden bliss, Worshipped the beloved With a kiss.

What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb, If I were a Wise Man I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: Give my heart. -Christina Rossetti (1830-1882)

There is nothing we can give God to repay him for the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. But what we can do is give to him what he came to claim for himself in the first place: our hearts. God has already given us the greatest Christmas gift in history. All he wants in return is all that we are.

Christ's Nativity: God's Gift Just for Us

Adapted from a sermon by John Wycliffe (1324-1384)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

According to the joy the Bible reveals, we may say on Christmas Day that a child is born to us-for we believe that Jesus Christ was born on this day. It is God's spoken and written Word that tells us, both in figure and in letter, that a child is born to us, and it is in him that we should have this joy. And three short words are to be spoken from Isaiah's speech so that men may afterward joy in the service of this child.

First, we believe that since our first elders had sinned, there must be satisfaction made by the righteousness of God. For as God is merciful, so is he full of righteousness. But how should he judge all the world unless he kept righteousness in it? For the Lord against whom this sin was done is God almighty; and no sin may be done except against God. And the greater the Lord is against whom the sin is done, the more is that sin to be punished by this Lord. It would be a great sin to act against the king's bidding; but that sin which is done against God's bidding would be even more without excuse.

According to our belief, God told Adam not to eat of the fruit. But he broke God's command, and he was not excused in that sin, neither by his own folly (or weakness), nor by Eve, nor by the serpent. And so by the righteousness of God this sin must always be punished. And it is a light word to say that God must of his power forgive this sin without the justification that was made for this trespass. For God might do this if he would; but his justice will not permit anything else except that each trespass must be punished, either on earth or in hell. And God may not accept a person, and forget his sin, without satisfaction-else he must give men and angels free permission to sin. And then sin were no sin, and our God were no god. And this is the first lesson that we take from our faith.

The second teaching that we take is that he who should make satisfaction for the sin of our first father must be both God and man. For as mankind trespassed, so must mankind make satisfaction. And therefore it could not be that an angel should make satisfaction for man, for neither has he the right, nor was his the nature that sinned here. But since all men are one person, that person makes satisfaction for man, if any member of this person makes satisfaction for all of this person.

And in this way we see that if God made another man who was after the nature of Adam, he would be obligated to God as much as he might be for himself, and so he might not make satisfaction both for himself and for Adam's sins. And since satisfaction had to be made also for Adam's sin, as it is said, such a person that must make the satisfaction must be both God and man; for the worthiness of this person's deeds must be equal to the unworthiness of the sin.

The third teaching that must follow these two is that the child is born to man to make satisfaction for man's sin. And this child must be God and man, given to man. And he must bear his empire upon his shoulder and suffer for man. And this child is Jesus Christ, who we suppose was born today.

If we truly desire that this child be born to us, we have joy of this child, and we follow him in three virtues: in righteousness, and meekness, and patience for our God. For whoever condemns Christ unto his death, against the spirit, shall be condemned of this Child, even as all others shall be saved. And thus the joy of this child that was meek and full of virtues should make men to be little in malice. Then they observe well the season.

To them who will fight and chide, I say, to this child who is born as Prince of Peace, and loves peace; and condemns contrary men, who are contrary to peace. For we study how Christ came in the fullness of time when he should; and how he came in meekness, as his birth teaches us; and how he came in patience from his birth to his death; and we follow him in these three because of the joy that we have in him. For this joy, in this patience of Christ, brings us to a joy that shall last forever.

Jesus Christ came to earth two thousand years ago-born as an ordinary infant but still possessing all the attributes and character of divinity-as God's gift to a needy, sinful, lost humankind. It was our sin that made it necessary for him to come, but it was our heavenly Father's incredible grace, mercy, and love that made the event possible.

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

This is the month, and this the happy morn Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty, Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table, To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, He laid aside, and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome him to this his new abode, Now while the heav'n, by the Sun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet: O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the angel quire, From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. -John Milton (1608-1674)

On the morning when we celebrate the scene known as the Nativity, we celebrate the day that Jesus Christ-the one and only begotten Son of the everlasting God-was born. It is the day Jesus left everything in heaven behind and came to earth to become one of us!

Our Savior's Humble Birth

Adapted from a sermon by the Reverend Alfred Barratt

When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem he did not have a Christmas tree. The children born in those days were not as fortunate as children of today. The parents of Jesus were very poor. His house was not a palace, but a stable; his bed was not a pretty cot with a silk floss mattress, but a manger filled with hay.

And yet in spite of his poverty and humility he was the only begotten Son of God, who left his throne in heaven above and came to earth in human form to live among the sin-bound people of this world to teach them the love of God and to show them how much love God has for us.

On the day of his birth, the heavenly choir of angels gave a grand concert in Bethlehem. They sang their sky-born carols away up in the sky over the place where the lowly Child Jesus lay cradled in a humble cattle shed. One of the most beautiful songs the angels sang on that never-to-be-forgotten day was "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

It must have been grand for those shepherds who were "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" to hear such beautiful singing. But they did not celebrate this wonderful event by gathering around a Christmas tree. They just left their sheep and went down into Bethlehem to seek the newborn King, and when they found him they worshiped him.

The idea of a Christmas tree was not thought of in those days. The first Christmas tree was originated 732 years after the birth of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the children who were looking anxiously and with joy and great expectation to see the Christmas tree may like to hear the legend of the first Christmas tree. Yet it may not merely be a legend, but history sending forth its radiant light through the dreary mists of traditions.

It is an old German story-that Saint Wilfred transformed the heathen Teuton worship in the forest in the Christmas ceremony. About 732 years after the birth of Jesus Christ, he took a band of priests with him and sought to convert the worshipers of Thor. It was on Christmas Eve, while they were fighting their way through the deep snow in the dense forest, that they came upon a savage tribe assembled under a thick oak tree, which was symbolic of the god of thunder, Thor. The old, white-haired priest of the tribe was about to offer as a sacrifice to Thor the young, beautiful son of the tribe's chief. When Wilfred saw it he rushed forward and warded off the arm that was about to slay the child. The tribesmen were all delighted at the saving of their favorite, and because of this act they very soon became converts to Christianity. Saint Wilfred then took his ax and started to cut down the old oak tree. As it was about to fall, lightning struck it and rended it into many pieces, and in its place there sprang up a little fir tree, green and sparkling. They carried this little fir tree to the chief captain's hall, and set it in the middle of the room and round it they all made merry. It was about this first Christmas tree that the old, old story of Jesus and his love was told to the Teuton tribes, and in a short time they all became Christians.

Let us not forget that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus, and while we gather around the Christmas tree let us give our little hearts to Jesus as a Christmas present. He says today, "Give me your heart." If you will do this, he will give you in return a new sense of joy and peace that will not only shine through the Christmas season, but will remain with you throughout your earthly life. This would be a very fitting time to give your heart to Jesus, while the angels are singing again the Bethlehem anthem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Will you do this for your own sake, and for Jesus' sake?

Jesus humbled himself to come to earth and be born in the humblest of circumstances so we could know the heavenly Father who sent him in the first place. There is only one thing we can give him in return for this act of love and generosity, and that's our hearts.

(Continues...)