Guest Essay by Carole G. Adams
The joy of Christmas is the Gospel dressed up in lights and love! While the entire world pauses in December to observe the birth of our Savior, Christmas offers lavish opportunities to rise above the world and to instruct, inspire, and form the character of our children.
At Christmas, we can deliver the joy of the Gospel into the very hearts of our children through song, story, and art. Christmas is a major theme in the classic literature, in the great masterpieces of painting and music, and its carols are a genre much loved by all. To share Christmas through the classic arts and literature with children is formative for all – from the adult to the tiniest child.
A classic is a work of literature or art that endures, that has universal appeal to all ages and all cultures, and that delights with its artistic and permanent qualities. Literature is also the “handmaid of history” teaching God’s providence through stories, preserving timeless ideals, memorializing heroes, and instructing in wisdom, character, and morality.
Jesus demonstrated the power of story in his teaching because all ages love stories. Christmas is the time to tell the greatest of all stories, and to retell it year after year, until it is woven into the being of every child. Its retelling through the classics, through poetry, and through art elevates the sensibilities and mind of the child making a lasting impact.
Charles Dickens is a most-loved and most-read writer whose Christmas stories dominate the literature of Christmas. A Christmas Carol is the most often told and filmed and staged Christmas story of all time making Ebenezer Scrooge and his ‘Bah! Humbug!’ famous. What isn’t often told is that Dickens loved to tell the story of Jesus to his own eight children. He told it so often that he wrote in long-hand, without thought of publication, the New Testament story in language that would engage his children of all ages. He called his “family” version of the real Christmas story The Life of Our Lord. Long after the passing of Charles Dickens, and after the passing of his youngest son, the family gave permission for the release of The Life of our Lord—the version of the birth and life of Jesus in Dickens’ incomparable prose.
The Dutch painter Rembrandt devoted over half of his life’s work to painting images directly inspired by the Bible that he clearly loved and knew well. Thirty four of his masterpieces center on the birth of Jesus. All children, young and old, can only be blessed and edified by pondering these four paintings that could be shown as the Dickens’ version is read aloud:
- “The Shepherds Worship the Child” in which the light seems to come from the baby Jesus himself.
- “The Angel Appears to Joseph” that depicts the dream that providentially redirected the story.
- “The Flight from Egypt” showing the frightening nature of the flight by night and the journey of over 100 miles on donkey.
- “Adoration of the Wise Men” when kings bow before the stabled King.
Poetry can also makes the Christmas story come to life in the context of all periods of history. One particular poem that is often sung today was written during a time in our history when our nation was torn apart by the war between the states, “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This poem artistically and musically reminds us clearly and poignantly that truth alone is our hope – and that is the point of Christmas.
Ben Johnson’s “Carol” written in the 16th century tells us that
“To see this babe, all innocence,
A martyr born in our defence,
Can man forget the story?”
No, Ben Johnson, no man or child can forget such a story, yet there is danger in the rush and overwhelming sensory stimulation of celebrating Christmas to neglect the telling of this story as well and as powerfully as it deserves to be told. Use the classics – read them to your children and grandchildren – study the Rembrandts – and you will enrich yourselves and elevate the hearts and minds of the generations!
Merry Christmas!
The Foundation for American Christian Education offers a DVD of the reading of Dickens’ The Life of Our Lord, the showing of the four Rembrandt paintings of the Christmas story, and the reading of “Carol” by Ben Johnson and “Christmas Bells” by Longfellow.
The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens is also available from www.facebookstore.net.
Dr. Carole Adams is president of Foundation for American Christian Education in Chesapeake, Virginia. Dr. Adams with her husband, John, founded Stone Bridge School in 1980, which is now the national demonstration school for the Principle Approach. She was one of the many who was inspired and mentored by Miss Hall and Miss Slater, and a treasured friend of Miss Slater in her later years.
Used by Permission © 2012
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