The Christmas Box
It is so easy in our modern holiday season to give way to cynicism. Or even easier to simply get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent and the inordinate expectations and cultural BS of the holidays. What can we do to recover the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of it all?
Years ago I was praying in anticipation of Christmas and asking God how to live true in the midst of so many temptations and roadside bombs. He said, simply, “Bring the Magic.” A reference to C.S. Lewis’ beautiful take on the Deep Magic, I made it my mission for each Christmas.
God seems to use some stories to resuscitate my heart each December and remind me of the Magic so I can fight to bring that Deep Magic of the Kingdom and Immanuel – God with us, to my family.
Richard Paul Evans says it brilliantly. So often we end up trading “diamonds for stones.” In some effort to get validation outside of God, we take our question to our work, gathering stones, all the while trading the precious diamonds of the “years of our youth” with our wife and our kids.
This story is a quick and heartfelt read to help you recover the Deep Magic of Christmas. I think you’ll enjoy…
The following is the description from Amazon:
Since The Christmas Box was first published, more than eight million people around the world have been touched by its magic. It is a holiday classic that is as beloved in our time as A Christmas Carolwas in Dickens’s.
This special 20th Anniversary Edition contains a new Introduction by the author, explaining how this personal tribute to his children, intended for just a few family members and friends, became a worldwide phenomenon that brings inspiration and healing to everyone who reads it. As he reiterates his intention to remind families of the preciousness of their love for each other, Evans explains howThe Christmas Box has also helped children who have no families find love and hope. The miracle ofThe Christmas Box springs from its timeless message that knows no season.
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This was the meaning of the Christmas Box, that someday I would turn around and my little girl would be gone . . .
How quickly the time has passed. Today those two little girls for whom I wrote The Christmas Box are adults. What hasn’t changed is the relevance of my little story. Now, just as it was a thousand years ago and will be a thousand years from now, parents still look at their children and feel their hearts breaking a little, knowing that the only promise of childhood is that someday it will be gone. It is my deepest hope that, for centuries to come, the message of The Christmas Box will endure as a reminder of the sanctity and holiness of a parent’s love. God Bless and Merry Christmas.
