As a child, one of the things that excited author Merry Celeste Murray most about Christmas was the traditional reading of the Christmas poem that told of Santa Claus coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve night with lots of toys while children slept in their beds. That poem so filled her imagination that she was convinced beyond a doubt that every word was true.
But as an adult, Christian parent, she prayed that God would help someone create a poem about Christmas that would excite children even more as they envisioned the true story, from the Bible, of what really happened that very first Christmas.
Years later, as Christmastime drew near, she sat down at her computer and began typing: "Twas the night before Christmas ..." But instead of continuing the traditional poem, she found herself typing, "when up in God's heaven ..." With that beginning, the Lord gave her the words to the different poem she had prayed someone else would write.
That Christmas Eve, with her children and grandchildren gathered at her house, she surprised them with her own dramatic reading of the poem the Lord had given her. She watched her grandchildren's faces light up with excitement and belief as the true story of Christmas unfolded to them.
It is with great joy that she now shares this Christmas poem with you. We must tell our children the true story of Christmas-of how God gave to us the greatest gift of all, the miraculous birth of His Son, Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to save us from our sins.
