THE FORGOTTEN BIRTHDAY

It's your birthday. You're turning another year older and your parents are having a birthday party in your honor. You've invited all your friends and cousins to come over to celebrate. There are decorations hung around the room. There are candles for the top of the special cake Mom made. Everyone brings a present that's wrapped in pretty paper and bows.

The cake has been cut and eaten. Everyone has played the fun games. Now it's time for the gifts. But wait! Something is wrong! Instead of giving the gifts to you, all the kids at your party are handing the gifts to each other. Everyone else is getting YOUR birthday presents! When the last gift has been exchanged and opened, the children get ready to go home. "Good bye," they say. "Thank you for inviting us to your party. We sure had a good time." You stand there without saying a word and watch as they walk out the door carrying your birthday gifts. It seems like they forgot it was your birthday they were celebrating.

I wonder if that's how Jesus feels on His birthday. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birthday of Jesus. God sent His own Son to be born here on the earth on the first Christmas morning. Though Jesus was born as a real human baby with a real human body and with real human needs, He was still different than any other baby who was ever born. Because Jesus is God the Son, He is perfect and sinless. Jesus never did anything wrong. No one else can say that. That's what makes Jesus so special. He's the perfect Son of God.

When Jesus was born, God placed a new star in the sky. Some wise men saw this bright new star and knew that it meant something special. Somehow they knew it meant that a new King had been born . . . King Jesus. The wise men wanted to see this child who had been born, so they followed the star. The wise men traveled a long distance. Finally they came to the right place. They found the child Jesus.

The Bible tells us what happened next. The wise men "fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh." The wise men took these very precious and expensive gifts to Jesus in honor of his birth. This was a real celebration of Jesus' birthday.

Is that how we celebrate Christmas today? Do we still give gifts to Him? Christmas is Jesus' birthday, but usually we are the ones who get the gifts. So many people hardly ever think about Jesus at all. Some people don't even know that the whole reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus. How sad!

Perhaps this Christmas you want to give Jesus a gift in honor of His birthday. There's just one gift that Jesus wants most of all from boys and girls and men and women. Jesus wants your heart. He wants you to open the door of your heart to Him and ask Him to be your Savior from sin. Do you know that you are a sinner? Do you know that God's own Son, Jesus, paid for your sins by dying on the cross? Do you believe that Jesus came back to life again and is still living today? Are you ready to ask Jesus to come into your heart this Christmas?

Jesus has a gift for you. The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." When you take Jesus as your Savior, He is really giving you a gift -- eternal life -- life that lasts forever with God in Heaven.

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If you have any questions about this Mousetales story or if you want to talk further about receiving Jesus as your Savior, please e-mail Miss Missy at cef-cm@bwkip.com

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Mousetales is a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Columbia-Montour Counties, PA.