Once upon a time, there was a
man who looked upon Christmas as a lot of humbug. He was a kind and decent
person, generous to his family, upright in all his dealings with other
men. But he didn't believe all that stuff about incarnation which some
churches still proclaim at Christmas.
"I am truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, who was a faithful churchgoer. "But I simply cannot understand this claim that God became man. It doesn't make any sense to me."
On Christmas Eve, his wife and children went to church for the midnight service. He declined to accompany them. "I'd feel like a hypocrite," he explained. "I'd much rather stay at home. But I'll wait up for you."
Shortly after his family drove away
in the car, snow began to fall. He looked through the window watched the
flurries getting heavier and heavier.
A few minutes later, he was startled
by a thudding sound, It was quickly followed by another, then another.
He thought that someone must be throwing snowballs at his living room window.
When he went to the front door to
investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd
had been caught in the storm, and in a desperate search for shelter had
tried to fly through his window.
"I can't let these poor creatures lie there and freeze," he thought. "But how can I help them?" Then he remembered the barn where the children's pony was stabled. It would provide a warm shelter. He put on his coat and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light. But the birds didn't come in. "Food will bring them in," he reasoned. So he hurried back to the house for bread crumbs, which he sprinkled on the snow to make a trail into the barn.
To his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow. He tried shooing them in the barn by walking around and waving his arms. They scattered in every direction except into the warm, lighted barn. "They find me a terrifying creature," he said to himself. "And I can't think of any way to let them know they can trust me. If only I could be a bird myself for a few minutes, perhaps I could lead them to safety..."
Just at that moment, the church bells
began to ring. He stood silently for a while, listening to the bells resounding
the glad tidings of Christmas. Then he sank to his knees in the snow. "Now
I do understand," he whispered. "Now I see why God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.