A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. John Keats. Endymion

Every year on Christmas Eve when our children were growing up, I gave them a new Christmas book and would read it to them before they went to bed. Since we opened presents on the 24th, it was a gentle way to calm the kids down before sleep. Reading with the children on Christmas Eve was a special, cherished tradition. It is treasure in my memory. The collection grew over the years. We read the classics, such as Luke’s Nativity in the Bible, portions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, “The Gift of the Magi”, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Fir Tree.” “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” became a favorite. There were picture books about the first Christmas and variations of Luke’s narrative. Of course we also had Santa, Frosty and Rudolph as well as Santa Mice, Elves and sundry other Christmas creatures.

I recently found a copy of Tasha Tudor’s Christmas stories, carols and legends. It is entitled “Take Joy” and was inscribed to our daughter Laura on her first Christmas. The illustrations are magnificent and the sentiments profound. I also unearthed a book with illustrations by Norman Rockwell. This one was for Lisa, our oldest, when she was eight years old. I don’t know why I still have their books – and some of the others – but I am glad I do. They remind me that the birth of Jesus touched the world with beauty and wonder.

Christ’s Incarnation has inspired artists, musicians, composers and writers for more than two thousand years in ways that are hard to describe. Who can listen to Handel’s Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah and not get goose bumps? Who shares James and Della’s plight in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” and not be touched by their sacrificial love for one another? Who hasn’t laughed out loud during “A Christmas Story”? And who pauses before one of the many Nativity masterpieces, such as Rembrandt’s “Adoration of the Magi” and not been speechless. It is the powerful inspiration of the Holy Spirit which leads men to create “a (Christmas) thing of beauty which is a joy forever”

The birth of Jesus as told in Luke and Matthew has had creative power to transform mystery into magnificence. No other birth in all of the history can come close to Jesus’: not Buddha, nor Krishna , nor Mohammed nor any pharaoh, emperor or head of state. No other nativity narrative fills souls with “unspeakable joy” which expresses itself in music, art and literature. When Jesus was born, God’s plan to restore human hearts and minds to our original state was also implemented. We are seeded with creativity. We are destined to be masterpieces and to create masterpieces with our talents. We are meant for awe! We are meant to take joy because we are meant to worship in creative ways.

Without doubt the world’s culture is trying to destroy Christmas and to remove Jesus from the center.It wants a secular, materialistic and soul dead facsimile holiday based on feel good Hallmark movies and the gods of the marketplace. It does not want another Mozart or Caravaggio to emerge. It’s poised to destroy the next Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis or T.S. Eliot. Another John Newton writing another “Amazing Grace” is intolerable to the killjoys. Like Herod of old, they are jealous of any perceived rival. Those operating in the shadows with the devil hate Who Christmas celebrates and they despise those of us who have chosen Him. They want us to share their hopelessness and the misery of this fallen planet. How dare we aspire to awe and wonder, bowing before the King of Glory? How dare we allow the Holy Spirit inspire us to worship the new born King with a painting or soaring symphony? How dare we make life beautiful?

Jesus came to give us life and that life more abundantly, as my pastor loves to preach. He was with God in the beginning, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is within it. He who created snowflakes and the cosmos, who paints the night sky with constellations and who sings over us with love, also implanted songs and music and art into our being, especially at Christmas. I’ll take Jesus’ offer of a abundant, creative life and, hopefully, will write all the days left to me. Meanwhile, later this week I will give those precious books to my daughters!