Write About Jesus Workshop

DECEMBER 20 - You may recognize today’s song because it is built around the old spiritual and teaching song “Go Where I Send Thee.” It’s also a “cumulative” song because, like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” the singer adds a number to those being “sent” with each chorus. The added number refers to a different Bible story or event. One, of course, is the “little bitty baby born in Bethlehem,” and how fitting is it that the song always returns to that baby— what could be more important! Some of the other stories are obvious and some not quite so clear. They can even change, depending on which version of the song you sing. Two is Paul and Silas, three refers to the “Hebrew children” Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego. Four alludes to the four Gospel writers, ( I love that the “four” stood at the door, getting ready to spread the good news). Five is about the feeding of the 5000, and six (when the world was fixed) is the number of the days of creation, and so on.

Because it come from oral tradition and there are many versions, Russell Mauldin and I felt there was some freedom to add our own interpretation for the musical Bethlehem Morning. Instead of our choruses accumulating numbers, the choruses refer to being sent out with hope and joy, and finally we added two verses. It’s a fun moment with a lot of energy, and hopefully it’s what will get you up and going on this last busy, busy Saturday before Christmas!

DECEMBER 14 - Over 300 years ago, the French mathematician and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” The concept of a “God-sized hole” we all carry around inside us is actually much older than Pascal. The writer of Ecclesiastes, traditionally thought to be Solomon, wrote that God has “set eternity in the human heart.” And the apostle Paul wrote in Romans that every person has an innate awareness of God through creation.

We don’t have to be godless. We don’t have to exchange the truth of who made us and who we are intended to worship for a fake substitute. Even today in 2025, God wants people to turn to Him, to surrender to Him, to find the meaning of their lives and their purpose for being. At Christmas, the answer is all around us if we’ll stop long enough to focus.

Find Jesus. If you don’t know Him already, He’s waiting for you. If you’ve lost sight of who He truly is, listen to the angels proclaiming His birth and follow the shepherds as they search Bethlehem for Heaven’s gift to the world.

When you find Jesus, “You’ll Find Christmas.”