A Devotion from Ruth Bell Graham

God’s Gift on God’s Tree

As our children grow and mature, our greatest joy, perhaps, is leading them to realize that the

Babe of Bethlehem is in reality the Christ of Calvary.

We have always held precious the familiar childhood memories of Christmas, the sparkling

tree with all its decorations, the excitement of secrets and surreptitious hiding of gifts. But

Christmas to us is far more than these things, and is of infinitely deeper significance than

seasonal excitement. And we believe that children who are blessed with Christian homes and

listen to the Christmas story and the happy carols can, even at a very early age, learn something

of the spiritual significance of it all, namely, a Gift and a Tree that give Christmas its meaning.

As Christmas approaches once more, we Christian parents long that our children experience

both the fun we knew as children and at the same time the reality of the Christ Child as Savior

and Lord in their lives.

Many years ago something of the true meaning of Christmas dawned upon me as I realized

for the first time that the precious baby for whom there was no place at the inn was in truth the

eternal Son of God, the Creator of the world. In his Incarnation I came to see that he was but

entering the world he had created himself, coming from the living heart of the Father to

redeem the people of his own creation.

Now as I have experienced the miracle of bringing precious lives into the world, I am, as a

Christian mother, faced with the responsibility as well as the privilege of leading these little

hearts to know Christ without whom life is empty and through whom life is abundant and

eternal.

All of us are in this world as a result of physical birth; some of us are going to spend an

eternity with Christ by reason of spiritual birth. I know little of the shades and implications of

theology; but of this I am sure, that at Christmas we shall be celebrating not merely an

historical event of two thousand years ago, but a glorious, momentous step in the plan of God’s

redemption for sinful man, which culminated at the Cross.

This is the reason we want our children to understand what Christmas means. We want

them to enjoy the pleasures of a festive holiday season, but far more do we desire that they

grasp, even now, as best they can, the knowledge of him who is Emmanuel, “God with us,”

Savior and Lord. The job is too big for us, we know. But we are aware that “He that spared not

his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?”

namely, the wisdom that we need, the understanding and love and grace.

As we pray for our children and think of the things that this world may have in store for

them, we know of no better time than Christmas to acknowledge, “For I know whom I have

believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him

against that day.”

And we can claim the assurance: “For the promise is to you and to your children.” We have

committed them to God and our faith rests implicitly upon his sufficiency.