Zechariah: A Christmas Surprise
Roger Thomas
Luke 1:5-13
December 21, 2003
Introduction: Christmas is about surprises. It always has been. It still is. That's part of what makes Christmas—Christmas! I remember when I was a child our Christmas Eve's were always full of surprises. That's when our family opened our gifts.
The routine went something like this. The Christmas tree was already decorated, but sadly very few presents had appeared. From our investigations, my two brothers and I would conclude that the only packages under the tree probably contained some new underwear and socks. Mom and Dad told us that we would have to wait for Santa to bring anything better. But when? That was the big question. My parents didn't know. How could they know Santa's schedule?
Every Christmas Eve was the same. We would have supper at the normal time. As the oldest, I would do the dishes while my younger brothers ran off to play. You do believe that, don't you?
Sometime after supper on Christmas Eve, Mom or Dad would always suggest that we all go for a ride and look at the Christmas lights. We would grab out coats and head for the car. Somewhere between the house and the car, Dad would always forget something and have to go back in the house. We would wait and wait and wait. I could never understand what took so long.
About a forty-five minute ride and many oohs and aahs later, we would pull back into our lane. Mom would go in the house first. No sooner would she get in the back door than we would hear her shout. "Somebody's been here!" We would rush in to see what had happened. Lo and behold, somebody had been there! It was Santa. And he had left a pile of packages under the Christmas tree beside our lowly socks and underwear! How did he know when to come? He always seemed to know exactly when we were going to be gone? Mom and Dad always seemed to be as surprised as we were! Go figure!
The first Christmas had its share of su ...
There are 13230 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
