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There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't
hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and
religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did
believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and
Jesus, 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 to come, but he refused.
"That story is 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.
A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned
into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he
saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before
the fire for the 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 could not go on.
They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter.
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 is 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 did not 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 back out with some bread, broke it up,
and made a bread crumbs 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 save 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!"
Author of this version Unknown (see below)
Disclaimer
Unable to trace its proper
parentage
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