The Greatest Story Ever Told
This week in the Dispatch:More Christmas Trivia and Questions in Quick Hits
The Memory Man in books.
The Awesome Marriage Podcast takes a break.
“The Story of the Birds” in Insights
Next Steps with God
A Challenge to join the Great Commission
This Week’s Quick Hits:
Christmas Trivia:
The three traditional colors of most Christmas decorations are red, green and gold. Red symbolizes the blood of Christ, green symbolizes life and rebirth, and gold represents light, royalty and wealth.
Clement Moore’s poem introduced eight more reindeer for Santa’s sleigh and their names were Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Duner and Blixem ( the German words for thunder and lightning). These later evolved into Donner and Blitzen.
The image of Santa Claus flying his sleigh began in 1819 and was created by Washington Irving, the same author who dreamt up the Headless Horseman.
Christmas Questions
Who had the first Christmas tree?
When was “Jingle Bells” first played from space?
What Christmas food is made from “Marsh-Whorts”?
(Answers below the Next Step)
Book:
The Memory Man by David Baldacci
A number of authors create a character that anchors a series of books. David Baldacci is one of those authors and Amos Decker is the character. The first book in the series is Memory Man. Amos is a former pro football player injured on the first play of his career. The hit caused changes in his brain and gave him new mental abilities, including an infallible memory. Amos becomes a successful police detective, but after his family is murdered he loses his will to live and becomes a transient and works as a private investigator. Amos is asked to help solve a mass shooting at a local high school. It soon becomes clear that the shooting was related to his family’s death a year and a half earlier. There are now six books in this series. I love the characters, and the story lines are intriguing. If you are looking for a new fiction detective series, this is a great read.
YouVersion Plan:
This week’s featured YouVersion plan is “The Foundation.” Join Dr. Kim in this five day plan designed to help you build a foundation that will equip you to have an awesome marriage.
Podcasts:
The Awesome Marriage Podcast is on a winter break. Look for our first episode of 2021 on Tuesday, January 19th!
Insights
Paul Harvey was an American radio broadcaster from 1952 to 2008. His programs reached as many as 24 million people per week. Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, on 400 American Forces Network stations, and in 300 newspapers. Every Christmas Paul would retell the story, “The Man and the Birds.” The author is unknown and the story timeless.
The Man and The Birds
The man I’m going to tell you about was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe in all of that incarnation stuff that the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to Earth as a man.
He told his wife, “I’m truly sorry to distress you, but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he would feel like a hypocrite and that he would much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. So he stayed and they went to the midnight service.
Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then he went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.
Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another ... and then another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against the living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled outside miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter they had tried to fly through his large landscape window. That is what had been making the sound.
Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures just lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter. All he would have to do is to direct the birds into the shelter.
Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light so the birds would know the way in. But the birds did not come in.
So, he figured that food would entice them. He hurried back to the house and fetched some bread crumbs. He sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail of breadcrumbs to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs.
The birds continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them but could not. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction ... every direction except into the warm lighted barn.
And that’s when he realized they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Any move he made tended to frighten them and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.
He thought to himself, if only I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe warm ... to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see ... and hear ... and understand.
At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind.
He stood there listening to the bells, Adeste Fidelis, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.
And he sank to his knees in the snow ...
Merry Christmas to each of you and your families!
Challenge:
What has God been doing to get your attention?
What does God want you to do?
Next Step:
We are celebrating the greatest story ever told, the birth of our Savior! Who do you know that needs to hear this story? Will you share that with them today?
Answers to Christmas Questions:
Martin Luther came up with the idea of candle-lit trees in 1536.
1965. This was actually the first song ever to be played from space.
Cranberry sauce. Marsh-whort is an old name for cranberry.
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