{"id":733,"date":"2017-12-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/a-child-is-born-and-child-like-fai\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:12:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:12:28","slug":"a-child-is-born-and-child-like-fai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=733","title":{"rendered":"A Child is Born and Child-Like Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nA Child is Born and Child Like Faith<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nOne of my fondest memories, as a child, was memorizing a Christmas poem for my church\u2019s Children\u2019s Christmas Program. It may have been the simplest of words \u201cChristmas is a time of joy. It started with a baby boy. He came to save us from our sins. Won\u2019t you let him be your friend?\u201d But those words resonated in my young soul. It meant practicing our poems and the songs we would sing at the program, as well as getting our costumes made or borrowed for the Nativity Play. Then the big night came when I, along with the other children, would sing in the Children\u2019s Choir and hold up acrostic letters that spelled J-E-S-U-S and recite our poems that themed the birth of Jesus. There would always be a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, arriving at the stable, placing a baby doll in the manger and the angels appearing to the shepherds. Then the grand finale came when the shepherds and wise men bowed down and worshiped the newborn king. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nThis exciting night of children being children with bloopers and blunders and little ones waving at their parents and boys with shirts untucked from their pants, that all culminated with the reward of a paper bag filled with an orange, an apple and hard candy for each child. It was the best reward EVER! <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nWe got it right back then \u2013 everything exciting started and finished with the birth of Jesus. Maybe it was because I was a child with very few responsibilities. After all, I only had to memorize some lines in a poem and pose as an angel at the manger scene, but now I think, in the middle of the busyness, the to-do lists and a loaded up calendar, that we\u2019re missing that simplistic approach to Christmas. Maybe I knew so much more than I do now. Because what I remember from those times, more than anything else, is the feeling of the wonder of realizing that sweet little baby boy, Jesus, came for me. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nMaybe it\u2019s because the older I get. the simpler I desire my life to be.. The reality that Jesus came for me and all He wanted in return was for me to love Him back, seems like the answer to it all. I started complicating things. Somehow, the Christmas story was more about what I do — decorating my home to look like a Christmas Store, finding the perfect gifts, how well I can tie bows, making all my Christmas cookies, choosing the perfect outfit and making sure the table is set just right. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nBut the angels didn\u2019t say, \u201cGood news! You get to try hard. You get to wear yourself out. You get to make sure you have it all together.\u201d Instead they declared: \u201cI bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. (Luke 2:10-11)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nGreat joy! A Savior! For us! This reminds me that the heart of Christmas has always been about two things: A child in a manger and childlike faith. I sang “Away in a Manger” with my childlike faith and I believed it. \u201cI love Thee Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, and stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children, in Thy tender care and take us to Heaven to live with Thee there.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nChildlike faith is not about hustle; it\u2019s about humility. It\u2019s not about perfection; it\u2019s about grace. It\u2019s not about effort; it\u2019s about extravagant love. Maybe we could all go back to the simpler, easier, less stressful way of celebrating this most beautiful night when Christ was born. Maybe we could sit in our living rooms on a silent night. Maybe we could read the story again and remember the version we understood long ago — the one that\u2019s still true today. Jesus came. We are loved. We love Him back. That is all that really matters.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Child is Born and Child Like Faith One of my fondest memories, as a child, was memorizing a Christmas poem for my church\u2019s Children\u2019s Christmas Program. It may have been the simplest of words \u201cChristmas is a time of joy. It started with a baby boy. He came to save us from our sins.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4215,4216,4133,2779,4217,4218,4219,3200,4220,4221,4222,4223],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-child-is-born","tag-away-in-a-manger","tag-birth-of-jesus","tag-child-like-faith","tag-christmas-program","tag-complicating-things","tag-luke-210-11","tag-practice","tag-rehearsal","tag-savior","tag-simpler","tag-story-of-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7670,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/7670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}