I am so excited for Christmas this year. It’s like the cold weather hit, and it suddenly felt like it should be the holidays. I’ve been listening to Christmas music since October, and I’ve had most of my gift shopping done since then as well. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been waiting long enough that surely Christmas must be just around the corner.

It’s not even Thanksgiving. 🙂

I don’t remember getting this excited about Christmas when I was younger. Maybe it’s because back then I didn’t have a house to decorate, an area to flood with lights and music. Maybe it’s because back then I didn’t have two little boys to read Luke 2 with every day as they try to memorize “Caesar Augustus” and “Bethlehem” and “his espoused wife.” Maybe it’s because back then I didn’t have a wonderful husband who always takes extra days off work over the holidays, days I look forward to for weeks.

I’ve always liked “Away in a Manger,” but there’s something sweeter about singing it with little voices chiming in. And I haven’t always liked “Joy to the World,” but after taking the time to teach the boys all the verses, there’s something so special about singing it together. It’s how we’ve started every Bible Time for weeks now, and I’ll be a bit sad when Christmas has finally come and gone.

I think it’s the music and the Luke 2 memorization that keep me the most grounded about what Christmas is all about. I’m so excited to decorate and put up lights and make Christmas cookies with the boys, but fun and magical traditions can’t ever supercede that simple and incredible story of the baby born that night in Bethlehem.

Luke 2:9 is the current last verse of our memorization. “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.” Every time I read it to the boys, one or both of them ask, “But why were they afraid of the angel?” And I tell them it was because the angel was big and bright and beautiful, and the shepherds had never seen anything like it; and I tell them that the angel said, “Glory to God in the highest! Jesus is born!” And every time I say it, it is still so special and so almost unbelievable.

He didn’t have to come. He certainly didn’t have to come as a baby.

But He did.

Emmanuel. God with us.

So while I’m excited for Christmas cheer and good food and time with family, I’m also excited to tell my boys again and again the story of that silent night in Bethlehem, a night split with a baby’s cry and with the singing of angels.

And with that story, I can’t help but think of the cross looming in the distance . . . but with that cross comes another incredible story, one of resurrection and redemption, and I tell my boys that story as well.

What a gift . . . the stories, and the reality, and the call to pass it on from generation to generation.

God is with us, as He was with those who taught us, and as He will be with those whom we teach.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)