Article December 17, 2012 Issue

New joys at Christmas

Cathryn Bartlett Rathsam

After I’d spent a special Christmas Eve with my sons and their girlfriends, I planned to spend Christmas Day quietly cherishing the gift of Christ Jesus’ birth, life, and ministry. As I was praying that morning about how to share this supreme gift with others, the question came: “Does everyone in my community know the real reason for this holy day?” As we all know, Christmas has become a buying bonanza. And in some public spaces, mentioning the birth of Jesus at Christmastime is frowned upon.

More ideas flooded my thought, and I felt led to act on them in this way. First, I printed up two signs. They said: “Do you know the story of the birth of Jesus?” and “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men” (a paraphrase of Luke 2:14). I put the signs in standing frames, and along with a tablecloth, holiday runner, nativity scene, cookies and dates, a couple of different Bible translations, and several illustrated children’s books on the nativity of Jesus, took off to my local harbor.

After setting up at a picnic table along the walkway, I smiled and greeted passersby, and read a bit from the Christian Science Bible Lesson. People were genuinely happy to see me doing this and gave me thumbs ups, big smiles, and even exclamations of “Thank you for doing this!” Several people stopped to look and take a date (which was part of Jesus’ diet) or a cookie, and we had some lovely discussions on the Bible. I also had an issue of National Geographic with the cover story that celebrated 400 years of the King James Bible.