When Christmas Came
Barbara Rainey
 December 11
For many years I've felt that there wasn't a need for another book on Christmas or even additional Christmas products because of the over-commercialization of this important holiday. It seemed to me rather unnecessary to add to the glut of seasonal stuff.
But I have felt there is a need for Christmas cards that aren't sappy or nostalgic or trite, ones that clearly express the heart of the Christmas message in a new and fresh way. And so I began designing a series of Christmas cards based on the "un-Christmas" verse, John 3:16, for a creative and different look at Christmas. Drawing on my many years of inductive Bible study, I wrote a series of poems with phrases taken directly from God's Word. From there I began to do some simple watercolor illustrations to visualize the phrases of John 3:16–––a heart for "God so loved," a globe for "the world," and a wrapped gift for "that He gave," and so on.
The cards graduated to a book with the seven phrases from John 3:16 with each part of the verse accompanied by a short story. The result is a beautiful book that is strongly biblical. It was a wonderfully fun and creative project to undertake.
There is a wonderful old hymn which says in part, "I love to tell the story . . . of Jesus and His love." That is the essence of Christmas, the retelling of the story of Jesus and the love that compelled Him to come to us. It's not the holiday itself that I love but the old, old story that is ever new. And it is my privilege, as it is every believer's, to find new and fresh ways of telling others about Jesus. My hope is that When Christmas Came will lead many to a new level of understanding of the Bethlehem story and a new level of worship and awe for the Gift that was given that first Christmas. | 
