Page 4 - Good News December2006 paper
P. 4
It cost Mary and Joseph the comforts of home during a long period
One of the most beautiful of all As night began to fall, the of exile in Egypt to protect the little Babe.
Christmas stories was told by cobbler heard a child crying It cost mothers in and around Bethlehem the massacre of their
the American poet, Edwin outside his door. The child was babies by the cruel order of Herod.
Markham, about a cobbler, a lost and afraid. The cobbler went It cost the shepherds the complacency of their shepherds’ life, with
godly man who made shoes in out, soothed the youngster's the call to the manger and to tell the Good News.
the old days. One night the tears and, with the little hand in It cost the wise men a long journey and expensive gifts and changed
cobbler dreamt that the next day his, took the child home. lives.
Jesus was coming to visit him. When he returned, the cobbler It cost the early apostles and the early church persecution and
The dream seemed so real that was sad. He was convinced that sometimes death.
he got up very early the next while he had been away he had It cost missionaries of Christ untold suffering and privation to
morning and hurried to the missed the visit of his Lord. Now spread the Good News.
woods, where he gathered green he lived through the moments as It cost Christian martyrs in all ages their lives for Christ’s sake.
boughs to decorate his shop for he had imagined them: the More than all this, it cost God the Father His own Son - He sent Him
the arrival of so great a Guest. knock, the latch lifted, the to the earth to save men.
He waited all morning, but to his radiant face, the offered cup. He It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice and service, a death cruel and
dismay, his shop remained quiet, would have kissed the Hands unmatched in history!
except for an old man who where the nails had been,
limped up to the door asking to washed the Feet where the
come in for a few minutes of spikes had entered. Then the
warmth. While the man was Lord would have sat and talked
resting, the cobbler noticed that with him.
the old fellow's shoes were worn In his anguish, the cobbler cried
out. Touched, the cobbler took a out, "Why is it, Lord, that Your ot long ago, a professor of Psychology in one of our great
new pair from his shelves and feet delay? Have you forgotten universities gave a “word suggestion test” to his class of 40
saw to it that the stranger was that this was the day?" Then, Nstudents.
wearing them as he went on his soft in the silence a Voice he He instructed them to write the word “Christmas,” and all the class did
way. heard: so. “Now,” said the professor, “right after the word ‘Christmas’ write
Throughout the afternoon the "Lift up your heart for I kept My the first thought that flashes through your mind regarding that day.”
cobbler waited, but his only word. Three times I came to your When the papers were turned in, such answers were given as “tree,”
visitor was an elderly woman. He friendly door; “holly,” “mistletoe,” “presents,” “turkey,” “holiday,” “carols,” and
had seen her struggling under a Three times My shadow was on “Santa Claus,” but not one had written, “the birth of Jesus.”
heavy load of firewood, and he your floor. As there was no room for the baby Jesus in the inn, there is hardly any
invited her, too, into his shop to I was the man with the bruised room for Him today in the celebration of Christmas.
rest. Then he discovered that for feet.
two days she had had nothing to I was the woman you gave food
eat; he saw to it that she had a to eat.
nourishing meal before she went I was the child on the homeless
on her way. street.” www.e-sword.net