How well do you know the story of the birth of Christ? We have fallen in love with the Christmas carols, and unfortunately for many, that’s as much as some know about what happened on that glorious night over 2000 years ago. Yet even our Christmas carols don’t always tell the story correctly. Let’s explore these events more carefully, an episode at a time, as we prepare our hearts to experience and celebrate Christ’s birth in a fresh and new way.

Seven years ago I wrote a series of posts on my His Whisperings blog for this purpose. The links are shared below to those posts with suggested dates for reading them. I am adding one or more posts in the list from other sources that are also appropriate. Most of the illustrations in this series come from a Bible quilt created from coloring pages drawn by Violet Vandor for my children’s book, The First Christmas. This book has been revised and published under a new name, Baby Jesus . . . Messiah! (Note too, that on Bible Bites 4 You there is an alternate series of Advent posts. These posts can be found by clicking on “Advent” in the categories in the sidebar. That series doesn’t go into as much depth as the links below.)

December 1 Messiah… anticipating Advent

December 4 Gabriel visits Zachariah

December 8 Gabriel visits Mary

December 12 Mary visits Elizabeth

December 16 Mary returns to Nazareth

December 18 Joseph’s Dream

December 20 Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem

December 23 No room in the inn

December 24 Birth of the Christ Child

December 25 a.m. Angel appears to shepherds

December 25 p.m. Shepherds find baby Jesus

December 26 A Christmas Story: What a Reunion!

January 1 Baby Jesus circumcised-prophets recognize him as the Messiah

January 3 Wise men and King Herod

January 6 Wise men present gifts to the Christ Child and return home a different way

January 7 Angel warns Joseph in a dream, family flees to Egypt