The second Advent Candle was lit by the Morehead Family this week.  They were asked "What does Christmas Mean to You?" Read on for their testimony... 

The question we were asked to answer was “What does Christmas mean to us?”. To us, Christmas is essentially the pure reflection of God’s ultimate love for us.  So Christmas to us, is a celebration of that love.   Although this powerful message is easy for us to understand, it can be difficult to explain it to our young children in a way that they will understand.

At this time in our lives, Christmas means something very different than it did before we had kids.  Now that we are parents, it has been interesting…and almost a challenge…to take what we have known for so long and simplify it in a way that our children can understand.  But this challenge has rejuvenated our own faith…has brought us back to the basics and forced us to start from the very beginning, with the simplest message, “God is Love”.   Even that phrase can be a challenge for someone who has never heard it before.  So we start with “God loves you, he had a baby boy (we say "like your baby brother") the babies name was Jesus."  We go on to talk about the sacrifice that Jesus made.   During these talks, our three year old son often chimes in, sometimes he adds to the story (usually pulling from one of his favorite Veggie Tales movies :-) we try to lead him back to the Bible. Other times he gives us heartwarming responses like, “Tell me more about your Jesus” or “I want to see Jesus”. 

Christmas is a wonderful time to continue on with this message to our sons.  Yesterday we spent the day putting up our Christmas tree and explaining the characters in the Nativity Scene, something our parents did with us growing up.   It is such a joy to start these traditions in own family, because, as we teach them about the gifts lovingly given under the tree and the meaning of the Nativity Scene, we teach them of God’s love for them.

We are blessed to be surrounded by such a loving and committed church here at Heritage Baptist Church.  As Andrew and Calvin grow, we know they will be taught the importance of this day and the tremendous sacrifice that God made in sending his son to this earth. 

Patrick and Emily Morehead