In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. John 1:4

The Christmas story has all the makings of the greatest story ever told. It is filled with villains like Herod, innocent protagonists like Mary, and super-natural beings like the Angels.

It is a story told so often that sometimes we might forget its real power: to place us at the nexus of the history of the world when God became man. It is from that moment, rather than the creation of the world, that we mark time, because all of history pivots around Jesus’ birth.

This year I want to invite you to enter this story, to imagine if you had appeared in the pages of Matthew or Luke who you would have been. Perhaps you feel like a Shepherd, someone often on the sidelines, but suddenly a privileged witness of something wondrous.

Maybe you are more like the Innkeeper, someone who faithfully does his or her work but who has gotten a bad rap because of some historical accident. Maybe the Inn wasn’t full. Maybe it was just that there was no room that a mother would want her child to be born in, but nobody would listen!

You could be an angel. No, not the glorious angelic being glowing with light—rather someone who has grown wise over the course of time, filled with the call to share God’s message quietly from person to person to let people know that Jesus is coming into the world.

As you discover in these devotions how others see themselves as part of the Christmas Story, I pray you will as well.

Tom Evans

About the Contributor

Tom Evans became Senior Pastor and Head of Staff of First Presbyterian Church Spartanburg in 2012. Born in Brazil, Tom is the fourth son of missionary parents and Presbyterian ministers. Tom loves Christmas hymns and warm cookies.