-----Original Message-----
From: 	Hewett, Jackie  
Sent:	Tuesday, December 11, 2001 11:22 AM
To:	E Fisher (E-mail); Lawrence, Ed; hershy harty (E-mail); jansgrapevine (E-mail); Rosemarie (E-mail); Sosa, Frank; Campbell, Larry; Grace Community Church (E-mail)
Subject:	FW: Why Christmas?



 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Brickman, Ronnie  
Sent:	Tuesday, 12 11, 2001 08:55
To:	Matt Ammerman; Ashe, Molly; Bailey, Arnie; Bill_Baird@eott.com; Baker, Amy; ballardjk@yahoo.com; Bandel, Bob; CallieB23@aol.com; lylelinda@logixonline.net; Boothe, David; brennan@centramedia.net; Brickman, Susan Jane; max_five@yahoo.com; Brown, Ricky; Carbajal, David; rd_cates@yahoo.com; Clark, Scott; Clements, Carol; charlotte.collier@region16.net; mkdean@pldi.net; sdevor@hotmail.com; Fitzwater, Sandra; Floyd, Jodie; Foutz, Lawrence; aalbers@amaonline.com; Gokey, Ray; Hamilton, Luke; mark haney; Heitman, Dick; Hewett, Jackie; Howard, Randy; JHubbard@NEELY.com; Jolly, Rich; Ingalls, Todd; Jones, Sandra; Jordan, Fred; Chelsea Kroger; Lachapelle, Bobbie; Lawrence, James R.; Loveless, Rick; gcmlwd@nts-online.net; Metzler, Verlene; Rhett O'Briant; jkpenry@hotmail.com; Ragsdale, John; Robyn Penry; Roensch, David; dross@logixonline.net; simpson5@itl2.itlnet.net; Smith, Rick; Sommer, Carol; Sosa, Frank; cherylas@amaonline.com; Team EOTT-Whiteoak,; mthomason@logixonline.net; Thompson, Charlie; touchstoneleroy@hotmail.com; Urban, Larry; Calvin and Verna; mwallace@fone.net; theranch@logixonline.net; Wier, Gloria; Williams, Sammy; tate.williams@frco.com; Williams, Walt; billwood@nts-online.net; mmpmw@aol.com
Subject:	Why Christmas?



There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he  
didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and  
religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did 
believe, and she raised their children to also  have faith in 
God and Jesus, despite  his disparaging comments.   
 
One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking  their children 
to a Christmas Eve service in the farm  community in which they 
lived.  She  asked him to come, but he refused.  
 
"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would  God lower 
Himself to come to Earth as a man?  That's ridiculous!" So 
she and the children left,  and he stayed home.   
 
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the  snow turned 
into a blizzard.  As the man  looked out the window, all he 
saw was a blinding snowstorm.   He sat down to relax before  
the fire for the evening. Then he heard  a loud thump.   
Something had hit the window. Then another  thump. He   
looked out, but couldn't see  more than a few feet. When the 
snow let up a little, he ventured  outside to see what could 
have been beating on  his window.  In the field near his 
house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently  they had been 
flying south for the winter when they got  caught in the snowstorm  
and couldn't go on. They were lost and  stranded on his farm, with no 
food or shelter. They just flapped  their wings and flew around the field 
in low circles, blindly and  aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into 
his window, it  seemed. 
 
The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to  help them. The barn 
would  be a great place for them to stay,  he thought. It's warm and safe; 
surely they could spend the night  and wait out the storm. So he walked over to 
the barn and  opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they  
would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just  fluttered around 
aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or  realize what it could mean 
for them.  The man tried to get  their attention, but that just seemed to scare 
them and they  moved further away. He went into the house and came with  some 
bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumbs trail leading to  the barn.  They 
still didn't catch on. 
 
Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind  them and tried to shoo them 
toward the barn, but they only got more scared  and scattered in every 
direction except toward the barn. Nothing he  did could get them to go into 
the barn where they would be warm  and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!"  
he exclaimed.  "Can't they see this is the only place where they  can survive 
the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized  that they just wouldn't follow 
a human. "If only I were a  goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.  

Then  he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it  in his  arms as he circled around behind the flock of  wild   geese.  He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and  straight into the barn--and one by one the other geese followed it to  safety.   

He stood silently for a moment as the words he  had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were  a goose, then I  could save them!" Then he thought about what he  had said to his wife earlier.  
 
"Why would God want to be like us? That's  ridiculous!"   
 
Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God  had done. We were like the 
geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son  become like us so He could 
show us the way and save us. That was  the meaning of Christmas, he realized.  


As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet  
and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood what  Christmas was 
all about, why Christ had come.    Years  of doubt and disbelief 
vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and  prayed his first  prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to  get me out of the storm!"
 
---Author unknown