I have two Christmas-related books I remember from my childhood. One is a vividly illustrated version of the poem “The Night Before Christmas” and the other is The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazwell. I have love, loved, loved! reading books with my children and, over the years, we have found some beautiful and amazing Christmas-themed books. If you have children or grandchildren – or just enjoy amazing stories – here are a few of our favorites that I recommend. (I’ll do a separate post on my top two Christmas favorites; watch for “Tear Jerkers.”) Check them out from your local library or purchase them for yourself.
The Christmas Day Kitten – by veterinarian author James Herriot, this is a sweet story of a veterinarian’s care for a dying mama cat and her orphaned kitten who lives with basset hounds.
The Trees of the Dancing Goats – author and illustrator Patricia Polacco shares this lovely story of a Jewish family that brings hope while caring for sick neighbors during Christmas.
It’s Christmas! by Jack Prelutsky is a collection of early elementary reader poems that are such fun to read and memorize!
Hark! A Christmas Sampler by Jane Yolen with the icon-like drawings of Tomie dePaola, this lovely collection includes the Biblical Christmas story, several Christmas carols, and other poems, legends, and stories about Christmas.
At this point you might be wondering why I’m sharing these picture books if my kids are teens and it has nothing to do with my blog’s focus of praying for the world or each other.
Obviously, the Bible is our best “story” book because it is HIS Story – his message to us. But our creative God created a whole universe of beautiful, amazing, often intricate, and vast wonders that in their own ways show God’s glory and tell God’s Story. The Psalmist said it this way,
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4 NIV)
In another area of my life I’m wrestling with the question “how do we define and describe good art?” Tightly tied to that is “what is of the Lord?” Although I believe that “good art” should not in any way oppose or detract from God, I also believe that godly Truth and Beauty can be found in many, many places not explicitly “Christian.” Obviously, labeling something as having “Truth” or “Goodness” takes discernment and care; the enemy of our souls likes to package his goods in what looks like God but is certainly not. Yet, even authors, composers, painters and other artists who weren’t godly Christians can create beautiful art that can point to the Creator. Some of my strongest “a-ha” moments in my younger years were when God spoke to me through a secular, even profane movie, like “How to Make an American Quilt” or “Good Will Hunting.” I wouldn’t recommend these particular movies to my children at this time, and I would watch them today from a different spiritual place than I was when I first saw them. But I believe God can speak to us through many and varied places. After all, it seems quite dangerous to limit the God who created the Universe to only one kind of communication.
So, for today, I invite you to have spiritually discerning but open eyes to find God’s Truth and Beauty in unexpected places. May your spiritual ears and eyes be open to God’s Voice in movies, books, blogs, conversations, and a plethora of other places. And may books like these be a piece of the fun of Christmas!
Amen!
“Open my eyes to see the miracle-wonders hidden in Scripture” (Psalm 119:18 TPT)