Book Description
25 Stockings to Christmas
Beginning on the 1st December and journeying through to Christmas Day, this book is packed with inspirational thoughts and creative ideas to bring real meaning to your Christmas experience. There are nine different ‘times’ included for each day from which participants can mix and match each day depending on available time and resources. Suitable for individuals, couples, families or flatmates, the book is designed to bring something fresh and new each time you use it over the years. Also included are instructions for making a set of 25 stockings as an additional visual and tactile option.
About the Author
From the hanging ornaments on the Christmas tree at the beginning of December to the putting away all the decorations in January, Caroline has a love of all things Christmas. Most of all she is newly captivated every year by the story of God-become-man, and the way it resounds in the lives of those young and old.
Product details
Author: Caroline BindonLanguage: English
Format: pdf/ePub/Mobi(Kindle)
Word Count: 21519
ISBN 9780473263157 (pdf)
ISBN 9780473263133 (ePub)
Sample Text - 25 Stockings to Christmas
12 December
Bible Reading - Luke 2: 1-7 (CEV)
About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books. These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David's hometown, and Joseph went there because he was from David's family.
Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby, and while they were there, she gave birth to her first-born son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Question Time
1. What orders did Emperor Augustus give?
2. Where did people have to go to be listed?
3. Why did the baby lie on a bed of hay?
Reflection Time
All this build-up! Don't blink or you might miss the moment. Despite all the visits from angels in the build-up to this point in the story, the announcement to us of Jesus' birth slips in quietly at the end of a sentence. If you had visions in your head of angels heralding, trumpets sounding and stars flashing, you're a little early in the story. Jesus is born. Talk about an understated moment of history. It almost reads as an afterthought or an aside. "Oh, and by the way, while they were there, she had a baby."
Every birth story is different, just as every baby is different. For some, the overwhelming experience is joyous and happy. For others, it is full of pain, suffering and loss. Whatever the outcome of birth, whether happy or sad, for most mothers the time surrounding the birth is a memory they carry forever. Some birth stories are told and retold until the child who listens to his or her own story almost knows it so well that it feels like their own memory. Other birth stories are left untold. You might know your own birth story or perhaps it's a story you've never heard or can't remember.
Whether we know the stories surrounding our birth or not, birth is an experience that we have all had. It is one of a short list of common things which every individual that ever lives will experience. God could have sent Jesus to us some other way. Jesus was born.