My granddaughter Melanie was wandering and wondering her way around our living room, looking at her grandmother's Christmas "set-arounds." One was a small olive wood crèche on our living room coffee table.

Melanie came to the manger scene and stood over it, motionless for a few moments. Then she picked up the little carving of the baby Jesus in her tiny hands and drew it up to her chest. She closed her eyes and said, "Baby Jesus, sleep," and rocked the little wood figure in her arms. Surrounded by trinkets and presents, that little one had singled out the child.

Tears came to my eyes and I felt the strangest, strongest emotion. I could not have told you then what I was feeling or why I was so deeply affected, but I knew that something profound had occurred in me.

Later I realized why my heart was so moved by that simple event. It was symbolic of that other childlike act in which by faith we take up the wonderful Christmas gift God has given to us—our Lord Jesus—and receive Him into our hearts.  — David H. Roper