HIS WIFE had given up asking long ago. She knew her husband to be a good and caring man, but trying to get him to go with them to their parish Church was stressful and often provoked his resentment. Their children never gave up, however, so each Christmas Eve witnessed their great efforts to persuade their father. Please, they begged. Not this year, he frowned. As they walked to Church, both mother and children felt the wind and snow accelerating through the forked tree branches overhead.
 
The man had stopped caring. Christmas Eve services made him especially uncomfortable. If there was a God, he was far away and uninvolved in people's lives including his own. The story of the baby in the manger might appeal to children but the miraculous events that once fascinated him now made no sense. 
 
The temperature dropped rapidly. Heavy snowfall alternated with freezing rain in the evening darkness. After reading for a while, he stood up to look out of their family room’s large picture window. Out of the darkness of snow and sleet, he saw a sparrow flying straight at him. Startled, he watched the bird strike the window pane. Stunned by the invisible unyielding glass, the bird plummeted to the the snow-covered ground. More birds crashed into the window.
 
Repeatedly the sparrows struggled to right themselves and get airborne. They struck the picture window again and again. The small flock faced certain disaster. Caught by the unforgiving storm, they were searching for a refuge. The man found himself shaking. Never had he seen anything like this in his life. He had to do something. Grabbing his winter gear, he rushed out the door.
 
He would open the barn doors and turn on the lights. It was warm inside. Certainly the birds would see the barn light and fly toward it. But they wouldn’t go. I know. he said to himself, I will help them go to the barn. Gasping from the biting wind, he kicked and forced the snow out of his way as he approached the stricken birds. He picked up one bird and facing the barn, let it go. It flew back, striking the window. They thrashed the snow, struggling to get away from him. They were dying.
 
Standing some distance away, he shivered violently and pressed his arms tightly to his chest. Surely these birds must know what to do! The cold wind knifed into his muscles where the snow and sleet melted against him. His feet felt like blocks of ice. The birds refused to move. What more can I do for these creatures? A strange desolation overwhelmed him.
 
He sank to his knees in the snow in defeat. Why was this flock of ordinary sparrows so important to him? Suddenly he was distraught beyond words. He cried out, If only, if only I could become like them, I could show them! They’d follow me! If only I could become a sparrow like them! He heard the Church bells ring. “Joy to the world! the Lord is come, Let earth receive her King.” He wept for the hapless birds and his own helplessness.
 
Oh God, he cried out, I know what it means now. I know why you were born in a manger! To be like us, to save us! Overcome with emotion, he stood up and stumbled toward the sound of the bells. His heart pounded. He must find his family, to hold his wife and children. I have to tell them what happened, he shouted, I have to tell them!
 
My dear parishioners, in the name of the Christ Child of Bethlehem, men and women of faith everywhere proclaim God’s message of Christmas joy “by which you may be saved, you and all your household”.  [Acts 11:14]  “Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing! Joy to the world!” Sincerely in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. 


Your pastor, Reverend Richard Barker. 
 
 
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