In the heart of every Christian grandmother is the desire for her grandchildren to know Jesus as their Savior. This was my heart's desire nine years ago when I wrote the text to Jesus Is Most Special. It didn’t start out as text for a children’s book about the birth of Christ. It was simply the expression of one grandmother’s heart that her granddaughter would know of God’s love in sending the Savior.
At the time, my elder daughter, Amy, and her husband, Gary, were living in St. John’s, Newfoundland with my eldest grandchild, Anna, who was then three years old. As I thought about the miles between us and pondered how I could nurture a spiritual interest and understanding in Anna’s heart, the Lord put it in my heart to tell Anna the Christmas story via the written word. I had no pictures to send her, so I suggested that Amy and Gary use a nativity set in telling the story.
From this little beginning came the Christmas when Anna and her family, which now included a sister and brother, moved back to the United States and we were able to spend Christmas together—this time with Anna and Katie participating in telling the Christmas story to the family using our nativity set, while baby brother Joshua looked on.
But God had much bigger plans than I did for this simple story about the most beautiful story in the world. Through His mighty and peculiar acts of providence, He has made this story available to you through the beautifully formatted and illustrated book published by P&R Publishing. Who but God would take something intended for a little three-year-old and multiply the loaves and fishes of that effort to feed a multitude? Who but God indeed? His ways are higher than our ways. He is faithful to tell His story to each generation.
May you this Christmas be part of this great work of declaring His “glorious deeds…and His might, and the wonders that He has done” to the next generation that they might “set their hope in God” (Psalm 78:4, 7).
Jesus Is Most Special helps parents to share the story of the birth of Jesus with their children and goes a step further by placing the Christmas story in the larger context of the Bible, including what comes before and after. It goes on to motivate children to teach this all-important story to others after they have learned it themselves. Through its large, full-color illustrated pages and its suggestions for accompanying songs and visuals, this book will help children to learn by heart the most special story ever told.
