What do You See in the Child in Mary’s Arms?
by: Bruce Gordon
December 24, 2025
As a small boy being raised on our farm at the foot of Gordon Mountain, Christmas was a very special time.
Each year, our family, in our valley, looked forward to it.
Finding the right Christmas tree in the woods behind our farm was the mission. I spent much time through the year in the forest area, building forts. I was always on the lookout for that evergreen, that Dad, my brother and I would go and cut down for our small living room.
Starting in November at our public school, Echo Bay Public, we began practicing for the Christmas Program, which parents would attend. It was always about the Nativity story and each of us vied for what part we would play. It consisted of some Santa songs, however, our teacher always said, quite firmly that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus and we need to celebrate Him in our Program; and we did. It was a given.
At the beginning of each school day we always stood, sang God Save the Queen and then recited the Lord’s Prayer. In December, we also added a Christmas Carol.
At our little country Baptist Church, which was straight out of a Hallmark movie, we would prepare for the Sunday School Christmas concert and if you did not get the part you wanted in the school pageant, you had another chance to get it in the church program.
What we learned in school coincided with what we were taught in church.
The mystery for me, was Santa Claus. How did he fit in? How did he ever go to every house and climb down a chimney the night of December 24th. We did not have a chimney, rather a round stove pipe from the wood stove. I would ask my father and say, this is a mystery to me.
Dad would smile with that twinkle in his eye and say, Bruce, the greater mystery is the birth of Jesus. Don’t worry about how Santa gets into our house. I would say, well… OK, as long as he gets here!
Oh, how things have changed. Today, the world does not celebrate Christmas. Oh, there are lights, Bing Crosby’s I am dreaming, Christmas trees, Hallmark movies, etc. Yet, the government is not allowing us to focus on the nativity story in our schools or anywhere else for that matter.
For our local Christmas on the Peninsula, there was a Nativity Scene which was displayed for the Saturday. Following the weekend, it had to be taken down.
My friend and colleague, Dr. Darrell Johnson, recently published an Advent Devotional entitled “Awaken Wonder”. I quote him. “Most people who celebrate around the Christmas story have never really heard the story? Oh yes, most have heard about the special little Jewish boy born to a special Jewish couple on a starlit night. And yes, many have heard that the special little Jewish boy is claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Millions flock to hear and sing Handel’s Messiah. But most have not heard that the little Jewish boy was in fact, as Dorothy Sayers put it, “in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God ‘by whom all things were made.’”
As the shepherds hurried to the stable, from an angelic light show, they would never forget, they slowly approach Mary holding her baby. What did they see in the Child in Mary’s arms? It caused them to excitedly spread the news in that small town of Bethlehem, they had just seen the Messiah, and they sang all the way back to the fields.
What do you see?
What if you journaled your answers to that question and reflect over these next few weeks.
Yes, this Christmas, may you have an Awakened Wonder that will truly bring new peace, new joy and new hope.
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As a small boy being raised on our farm at the foot of Gordon Mountain, Christmas was a very special time.
Each year, our family, in our valley, looked forward to it. Finding the right Christmas tree in the woods behind our farm was the mission. I spent much time through the year in the forest area, building forts. I was always on the lookout for that evergreen, that Dad, my brother and I would go and cut down for our small living room.