Man and his birds.

Paul Harvey tells the story of how a man found the true meaning of Christmas through the littlest of God's creatures. The man told his wife that he would not be going to the Christmas eve service because he didn't want to believe in the Christmas fairy tale. So off to Church his wife went while he stayed home. As he was reading the paper, the man heard a thump, then another one, and another one after that. He saw that the winter storm was approaching and reasoned that the birds were trying to get inside to a warm place, but the window stopped them. As he thought, the man reasoned maybe if I opened the barn door then maybe the birds will see it and go into it. But they kept trying to get into his house. Then, the man reasoned maybe if I spread bread crumbs all the way to the barn door then maybe they will follow him into the barn. But the birds didn't come. Instead, they kept trying to enter his warm house.

The man lamented, if only I could become like a bird, to be like them, I can show them the way.........

So often, men have stood on the sidelines and watch their wives do the spiritual nuturing of their children. Like the man in the story, many married men will make excuses why they are unable to attend church with them. While their wives develop a strong faith through the worship music, teaching, and helping in the Children's ministries,the husbands are home getting stressed by the current events of the day. When tragedy strikes, these unchurched men resort to private or public drunkenness just to cope with the pain. Their lives begin spiraling out of control, much like a commercial jet liner losing altitude when its engines went out.

This wasn't God's intention. He created the Church for his people, to strengthen them with fellow ship and encouragement when things do not go right. As men, we need to take responsibility for the spiritual encouragement of our children and our wives just as seriously as our wives do.If we did this, there would be fewer broken homes, fewer messed up children, and a stronger resilence that binds the family together.

This is a classic Christmas radio program that illustrates why God came to earth in the form of a baby boy. He tried to show us the way through major and minor prophets, but man wouldn't listen. He tried speaking through dreams through ordinary people, but it wasn't enough to get our attention for many of us continue along our selfish ways. For many of us we would rather listen to the latest world views taught by professors who did not believe rather than to read the ancient texts of the bible. It is my prayer that all of you will discover what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to follow his teachings, to feed on the word of God, to love your wives just as Christ loved the church.