A New Christmas Story

The other day my daughter came and asked me if she could do "stickers on my computer." By this she means she wants to use the clip art in Word. As I was setting her up she said she wanted to use Jesus stickers because it is Christmas. So I typed "Jesus" in the clip art search box and left her to do her thing. She is getting pretty good with Word. She picked out four clip art pictures:

After picking them she needed a little help making them larger and then she wanted to print them out in color. Then she wanted to "read" the story to us, first Daddy, then me. Daddy came away from the story with a grin, so I knew this was going to be good. After she told me the story I asked her if we could write it down so I would be able to remember it. She wasn't too keen on this, but she did write down the first line herself and then dictated the others to me. So here for your reading pleasure is my daughter's Christmas story:

one Day There wus in egg in Jesus crADL.
(One day there was an egg in Jesus' cradle.)
The house was very dark.
All the animals came to sleep with Jesus.
The plus (the star) glowed in the dark; every night it did.
Jesus was fast asleep. He made those four lines. (by snoring)

There is so much about this story that I love, but I'll focus in on three of them.

• It shows me how much she relies on visual cues to understand and therefore sometimes misinterprets what is going on. I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be baby Jesus' head in the manger, not an egg. She's right, though, it does look like an egg, and why shouldn't there be an egg in a stable manger? I suppose there were chickens around...I don't know.
• I love the very real sense of personhood that she envisions for Jesus. No halos and meek and mild baby here. He's fast asleep and snoring away. Did you ever imagine Jesus snoring? I wonder if he did...
• It's another misinterpretation, but very special in its own way. That's a crucifix, not the Christmas star (or a plus, for that matter), but we do often show the Christmas star in a cross shape, and why is that? Have you ever seen a star with a cross shape? I'm not too much of a star gazer, but I have never seen anything but brilliant points of light, twinkling to be sure, but pretty much circular if anything. Meanwhile, isn't it good to remember Easter even as we celebrate Christmas? His birthday wouldn't be so special if the whole purpose of His coming wasn't what it was. He came with the express purpose of paying the penalty of our sins by dying on a cross. He not only died but He also conquered death by coming back to life on Easter morning. How fabulous to be reminded even as He lays in a manger (cuddling His egg and snoring?) that He came to fill us with abundant life.

This story, by the way, is now wrapped and sitting next to Santa's cookies and milk. Yes, she made a story about Jesus to give to Santa. I love it.

Merry Christmas to you and all of those you love.

May you be blessed with His peace and goodwill this season.

Amen.