The Bible speaks
Have you ever watched a chick or kittens being born? It’s amazing the beginning of new life!
It’s the same for you: you came out of your mother’s womb and suddenly, there you were! The people around about suddenly saw you and heard you. Do you know what time you were born? Was it daytime or night time?
On one particular night in Israel, everything seemed to be the same as usual. Some shepherds were looking after their sheep, as they did every night. But this one night had been chosen by God, right from the beginning of time, for something spectacular.
_________________________________________________
The stars were twinkling in the sky, just as they always did, when, suddenly, the shepherds saw and heard an angel, then a few more angels, then thousands of angels, singing in the sky about God’s glory.
The shepherds were afraid: they had never, in their whole lives, seen or heard anything like it.
The first angel spoke to them, “I have come with good news. Tonight, in Bethlehem, your saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord, was born!. You will find him wrapped in blankets in a manger.”
The shepherds left their sheep and went to find the baby, Jesus, lying in a manger, in the straw, surrounded by animals, just as the angel had told them.
_______________________________________________________
It was true! It wasn’t a dream. They really had seen and heard angels.
God had sent his only son to Earth.
Noël, Good News, Christmas. He is born. He has come. God has come to live with human beings. Alleluia!
__________________________________________________
In December, in many countries, it’s cold and there isn’t much sunlight. But even in places where the sun does shine, Jesus the light of the world has come and is brighter than a thousand suns.
He is the one who can change your heart, and take away your sins (the bad things you do that make you sad). He gives us true peace, the peace of God.
Noël! Noël ! He is here. God is with us. Forever.
The shepherds left the manger to tell everyone what they had seen and heard. It was fantastic! A new life had begun.
____________________________________________________
One day, you were born. Do you have God’s life in your heart? The life only Jesus can give you.
When he became a man, Jesus once said to an old man, “Nicodemus, you must be born a second time.”
Almost unbelievable: you can be born a second time, even if you are old.
Our first birth is the arrival of our body on Earth; our second birth is when we receive God’s life in our hearts, a new kind of life that goes on forever.
Noël! Noël ! A new life for you, a new life for me, so that our hearts – the way we think and the way we live – are changed; so that our sins are forgiven; so that we can live happily with God every day,
Noël! Noël ! God is with us forever!
