There was once a man who didn't believe in God and he didn't hesitate
to let others know that he felt religion and religious holidays, like
Christmas, were a lot of childish fairy tales. He said that religion
was a crutch for people who were too stupid to figure things out for
themselves or too fearful to live by their own strength. If God were
real He sure wouldn't do some of the dumb things people said He did.
His wife, however, did believe in God and was always quick to say that
she was born again. She raised their children to also have faith in
God despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a
Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She
asked him, as always to come, but he refused. "What a lot of
nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a
man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home.
While they were gone, the wind and snow grew stronger until it was a
blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding
snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire. He knew his wife
would not venture back on the road till the storm abated and he knew
there were good snow tires on their SUV. So, nothing to do except
enjoy the peaceful evening.
Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another
thump. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the
snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been
beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently
they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the
snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded by this
storm. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low
circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his
window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help
them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought.
It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the
storm.
So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched
and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But
the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice
the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get
their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved
further away.
He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made
a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.
Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo
them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in
every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them
to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.
"Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the
only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment
and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a
goose, then I could lead them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea.
He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his
arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then
released it.
His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and one
by one the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a
moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in
his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!"
Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would
God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made
sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese, blind, lost,
perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way
and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realized.
As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and
pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood what Christmas
was all about, why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief
vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and
prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to
get me out of the storm!"
-- Unknown
