Christmas is for the birds
We’re changing our focus this week, as Christmas and New Year approach. (Good Grief… I’ve fallen victim to Political Correctness! Pre-PC, I would simply have written “as the holidays approach,” but I didn’t want anyone to think I was substituting “holiday” for “Christmas” to be politically correct. So I wrote the words “Christmas” and “New Year” to avoid appearing to be PC. I think that means I’m becoming “reverse-PC.” Sheesh!) Anyway, instead of talking about my journey with God, I’m sharing a Christmas story that I have been telling to radio audiences every Christmas for years. I first heard it over twenty years ago from Paul Harvey.
Another Christmas Story
One Christmas Eve, a man was invited by his wife and child to go to the Christmas Eve service at their church. He refused to go saying, "I don't understand how a God who is supposed to be loving and kind can let mankind suffer so much. Why would He decide to become a man and be born as a baby in a manger, no less? It makes no sense and I just can't accept it." So his wife and child went to church without him.
While they were gone, a snowstorm blew in. So the man put some more wood in the fireplace, pulled up his favorite chair, grabbed his newspaper, and sat down to enjoy a nice quite evening alone. Suddenly, he heard a thumping noise and rose to investigate. As he looked out his living room window into what was now a fierce blizzard, he saw a flock of birds flying into his window again and again, trying to get into the light and warmth of his house. Even though the man did not believe in God, he was a good and compassionate man and felt sorry for the birds. "What can I do to help them," he thought. "I know! I'll open the barn doors. Then, when they see the open barn, they'll fly right in" So he pulled on his coat and boots and trudged out to the barn to open the doors. When he opened the doors and turned on the light, he turned to watch the birds fly into his barn. But the birds just kept flying against his window trying to get in.
"How can I get them to come in?" he asked himself. "How can I get their attention and get them to fly in here. I know! I'll put out bird food all the way from the house to the barn, and then they'll follow the trail right into the barn." So that's what he did. But still the birds just flew against the window trying to get into the warmth. It really didn't matter anyway, because the snow covered the seed almost as fast as he threw it down.
By now the man was becoming very anxious for the safety of the birds. "I have to help them - but how? They haven't noticed anything I've done so far. What can I do to get their attention? Then inspiration struck! “I have it! This time I'll get in front of them and wave my arms and yell and chase them into the barn!" So that's what the man did. He went up to the window where they were clustered and started to yell and wave his arms to drive them into the barn. But instead of driving them into the barn, he succeeded in driving them out into the storm because they were afraid of him.
The man was distraught that nothing he had tried had convinced the birds that the barn was the place they needed to be. He knew he had tried everything he could think of to get the birds into his barn, but nothing had worked. "If only,” he thought, “If only I could become a bird like them. Then they would trust me because I’d be one of them. I could speak their language and they would understand me and follow me into the barn and be safe."
Suddenly, he realized. “That's exactly what Jesus did for us! He came as a baby and grew up into a man so He could show us how to find safety in His 'barn'. He died so that we might live, and He rose again so that we could live eternally with Him! And the man dropped to his knees in the snow…He had to become a man to lead me to salvation!”
And in that moment, just as the reality of a living Christ struck, he heard the distant church bells ringing out …"Adeste Fideles."
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Epilogue
When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus in A.D. 353, who would have ever thought that it would become what it is today. When Professor Charles Follen lit candles on the first Christmas tree in America in 1832, who would have ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are today. It is a long time since 1832, longer still from 353, longer still from that dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus the king was born. Yet, as we approach December 25 again, it gives us yet another opportunity to pause, and in the midst of all the excitement and elaborate decorations and expensive commercialization which surround Christmas today, to consider again the event of Christmas and the person whose birth we celebrate.
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Thought for the Day
One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly. ~Andy Rooney
Turn the radio on
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Semi-interesting fact
12 newborns are given to the wrong parents in the U.S. daily. How scary is that?
Joke du Jour
A man told the ringmaster that he was interested in joining the circus as a lion tamer. The ringmaster asked if he had any experience. The man said, "Why, yes. My father was one of the most famous lion tamers in the world, and he taught me everything he knew." "Really?" said the ringmaster. "Did he teach you how to make a lion jump through a flaming hoop?"
"Yes he did," the man replied.
"And did he teach you how to have six lions form a pyramid?"
"Yes he did," the man replied.
"And have you ever stuck your head in a lion's mouth?"
"Just once," the man replied.
The ringmaster asked, "Why only once?"
The man said, "I was looking for my father."
Cool Music
We’ve added more cool songs you’ve never heard on radio. Check the player on the upper right, click and brighten your day.
Questions I ask myself:
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Really?? Actual News Stories
Think they’re missing the whole “Peace on earth” thing? A fight between two British men resulted in one of the men losing part of his finger before their children's nativity play got underway. A 32-year-old father was sitting in a school auditorium in South Shields on Tuesday afternoon when witnesses say a 39-year-old man came in and confronted him. One witness said the two men fought and then one man bit the other man's finger off and "spat blood out like an animal." The 32-year-old man was rushed to hospital where he was treated. The 39-year-old man was arrested. School officials said students did not see the fight as they were preparing for the play in another area of the school.
Would a used car dealer mislead a customer? A Detroit-area woman is suing an auto dealership, claiming her new SUV smells bad because it once contained a corpse. Margarita Salais sued Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights. The suit claims the dealership failed to disclose that the car had been stolen three times and once held a body. The lawsuit says Suburban Ford told Salais that the bad smell in the car came from a dead animal and would soon go away. A letter in her suit says a hazardous materials company determined it was a human odor. A dead human odor.Yuck.
A 45-year-old Oklahoma woman was arrested for allegedly trying to start a meth lab -- in a Wal-Mart store.
Police were called to a Wal-mart in Tulsa, after store employees saw a woman start to take items used to make meth off the shelves. She then tried to make the drug while she was still in the store. Staff called police, who arrived and took the items outside the store. Some of the chemicals spilled, and one officer suffered a minor burn to his hand. Police say this isn't the first time this woman has been arrested on meth-making attempts. She's been arrested before for the manufacture of methamphetamine…just never inside a store. “While speaking with some of the firefighters on the scene, she made statements that that's what she was doing, that she was attempting to obtain these chemicals and was in the process of trying to manufacture methamphetamine. However, she said that she was not very good at it," said officer David Shelby. Duh!Teacher suspended for hosing student A Florida school board suspended for 10 days without pay a teacher who hosed down a pre-kindergarten student who soiled his clothes. Stephanie Wilson, 52, a teacher at Dunedin Elementary who has been teaching for 30 years, received the suspension from the Pinellas County School Board after she hosed down the student at the side of the building Oct. 28 when he soiled his diaper and pants while playing outside. The punishment, which will cost Wilson $3,010, was recommended by Superintendent John Stewart.
Jetpack lets man swim like dolphin
A Frenchman has invented an amazing aquatic jetpack that allows him to dive in and out of the sea like a dolphin. Franky Zapata’s Flyboard uses powerful water jets to push the user through the water. He is able to shoot out of the water more than 30ft into the air, perform somersaults and other spectacular manoeuvres. The Flyboard is on sale for about $6500.Are you kidding me???
“Zionism” got that name from the hill in Jerusalem where the Temple of Solomon is located.
Groaner
A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. 'But why?', they asked, as they moved off. 'Because,' he said, 'I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
Point to Ponder
Oswald Chambers once wrote: “It is not God’s promises we need, it is [God] Himself.”
At Christmastime we often say, “God’s presence is more important than presents.” But the amount of time and effort we spend on shopping for gifts may indicate otherwise. In certain parts of the world, people give gifts on December 6. By doing so, they have the rest of the month to focus on Jesus and the wonder of His birth, God’s perfect gift to us.
How many of us can honestly say that we want God’s presence more than His presents? Often we want gifts from God more than we want God Himself. We want health, wealth, knowledge, a better job, a better place to live. God may indeed want to give us these things, but we can’t have them apart from Him. As David said, “In Your presence is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). Presents may make us happy for a time; earthly gifts from God may make us happy temporarily, but fullness of joy comes only when we remain in a right relationship with God. So, what would Christmas be like if we truly celebrated God’s presence?
Lord, we want to remember You and Your coming in special ways this Christmas.Help us to focus on Your presence and not on what we hope to give or receive.
Remember, Christianity is more about walking than about talking
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3 Comments:
Tom Hoshall here. Bob Cooper and I wondering how you are?Hope your doing well.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Ed , I may have a good program for your afternoon show call and we can talk about it388-1188 office
297-4210 cell
I wanted to comment about yesterday when you all were asking about who would be an honorable man - I want to say Dr. Charles Stanley from In Touch Ministries. I think he is great - Thanks
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