Christmas Reimagined: A Wonder Book

By Carolyn J Sweers

This book is an attempt to defamiliarize the Christmas stories found in the Bible. Familiarity can result in a diminishment of wonder at the astounding news that God was manifest as a baby in a manger and that the event was announced by angels. The Christmas story is not about something that happened once. It has profound implications for understanding our own divine origin and task. That is why letting oneself be drawn into the stories as if for the first time can work wonders. Enterand see.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524582081

Carolyn J Sweers

Carolyn Sweers grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1950's. It was there that she had her first experiences of the profound truths she tries to describe in this book. These experiences, more than any others, shaped her life and led her to a career as a philosophy student and teacher. This book and others that she has had published recently, have a shared objective: to evoke insight in the reader. She knows from experience the importance of finding what Kierkegaard called "the truth for me." And, she shares the Socratic conviction that people have within them this truth. It simply needs to be evoked.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Carolyn J Sweers.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017901812

ISBN:      Hardcover              978-1-5245-8210-4

                Softcover                978-1-5245-8209-8

                eBook                     978-1-5245-8208-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/06/2017

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Contents

Preface

Prologue

How To Prepare For Christmas?

Practice Believing Impossible Things

The Stories Of Christmas And How To Read Them

The Nativity Stories:

Zacharias

Mary

Joseph

The Birth Of Jesus

Visit Of The Magi

Herod

The Shepherds

A Word About Angels

A Shepherd Remembers

A Meditation On Advent

Acknowledgments

KJV:

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

ESV:

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NKJV:

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NIV:

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

PREFACE

The stories of Christmas are familiar, and that can be a problem.

I grew up with Christmas stories. I participated in Sunday school Christmas programs. I learned the carols. But it was not until I was drawn back to church after a ten-year