“The nativity scene is striking (if not shocking) in its hodgepodge diversity. No one could foresee this gathering of unexpected guests, this fraternization of clean and unclean, sacred and profane. It serves as a prophetic picture of the church (where there would no longer be any Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male, and female – but in which all would be ONE in Christ Jesus – Gal. 3:28). *In a world of increasing disconnectedness, the very act of gathering together is an act of defiance. In a world of increasingly customized comfort – seeking out discomfort is the counterintuitive path of life-saving resistance – and the way to experience paradoxical true things (and the spirit of liberty) growing luminous within you.”

“Like children trapped in a nursery (bored) – perhaps we might be left alone long enough to concoct new games with our imaginations! And not just new games, but new dramas and languages. …I have never understood what people mean by domesticity being ‘tame’; it seems to me one of the wildest of adventures.”

“Christmas is maintained much more faithfully by the ragged carol-singers than it is by the ‘Merry Gentlemen’ to whom they sing their carols. The truth of the matter is that the only real fun is to have limited materials and a good idea. What is deadly dull about the millionaire-banquets is that there is a contrast between colossal resources and no idea.”

“LET US FLING WIDE OUR IMAGINATIONS – AND REVEL IN THE REALITY THAT EVEN GOD BECAME A CHILD!”

“Christmas is a declaration of war! There is in this smuggled divinity an idea of undermining the world.”

“God chose to be born in enemy territory – Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say ‘landed in disguise,’ and He is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. *TO INCORPORATE US INTO HIS MISSION TO UNDERMINE THE WORLD!” [CS Lewis]

“Children have the serious sense of the great truth; that Christmas is a time when things happen; magical things that do not always happen! Children know that Christmas expresses that quality of instantaneousness, of urgency and excitement. Christmas proclaims that God is not distant or removed, but intimately involved in His creation. Christmas is a reminder that the cosmos is not a disenchanted place, but a magical realm governed by a real Magician.”

“Christmas truly is sensational because it engages, braces, and strengthens ALL THE SENSATIONS.”

“May Christmas be a way of maintaining godly sanity. While modernity is infatuated with the fads and fashions of our cultural moment, may we be ever more committed to that which is old and unfashionable – for in these “ancient paths” (Jer. 6:16), is found a sensational-sanity.”