Our Daily Bread: The Hope of Christmas Prøve

Linus’s Voice. In the timeless TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown tries to direct a children’s Christmas pageant. Everyone, it seems, is caught up in the commercialism of the season. Rehearsals go from bad to worse until our exasperated hero shouts at the ceiling, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” It’s then that Linus pipes up, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” Clutching his security blanket, Linus shuffles center stage and launches into a soliloquy for the ages—the Christmas story from Luke 2. Christopher Shea, the seven-year-old actor who voiced Linus’s role, died at age 52. But he learned the source of that simple TV show’s significance. “As I got older,” Shea once said, “I understood the words more, and I understood the power of what was going on.” One day our lines will be complete. We’ll walk offstage and into eternity. If we know Who it’s all about, we can exit in satisfaction and fulfillment, fully confident of life with the Power behind the words—the One who came on Christmas to rescue His creation. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:10 kjv). —Tim Gustafson The Word became human and made his home among us. John 1:14