Evening star., 1959-12-23
Our Christmas Story
By MRS BILLY GRAHAM
A ToIdt EG1ohet ShsrHI
Chapter J
TIME GROWS SHORT

Chapter
TIME GROWS SHORT
1t had to be q very special
time-the time when Gods
Son came into the world.
1t had to be a time when
many people could under
stand one language. After His
Son had done His great work
Of love, Of course God would
want people everywhere to
know about it. He would want
them to know that death was
finished, that the long sepa-
ration was over. that they
could come back into that
close fellowship with Him
whenever they chose to, that
sin could never again build
an everlasting wall between
them and God.
How was this wonderful
news going to get to every
person in the world? At first
only the children Of Israel
would know about it.
But they would tell others.
And those people would tell
still more people. until the
whole world knew what God
had done. So, to pass the
good news along from one
person to the next, people
had to be able to understand
each other.
Needed Good Roads
They had to be able to
travel to distant places, too,
so that the very farthest city
on the other side of the
mountains and the country
beyond the sea would know.
Therefore. at the time when
Gods Son was born, there
had to be strong ships and
wide roads.
God watched the world,
waiting for His perfect time.
The roads were not good
enough and the empires were
not big enough. Hundreds Of
years went by, and still it
was not time. 1t may seem to
us like a long time to wait,
but what to US are long, slow
years, to God is only the
blinking Of an eye.
And then a city called
Rome grew up, with the
strongest army the world had
ever seen. The Roman. army
conquered all the countries
around Rome, and then the
countries farther away, un-
til Rome had conquered the
whole world. when the Ro-
mans said "the whole world"
they didn't mean places like
America and China and Aus
tralia because they didn't
know about them. They
meant only the part of the
world that they knew
To make sure that all of
these conquered people would
obey them, the Romans built
roads to take their armies all
over the known earth. They
were very good roads-wide,
stone roads.
They Built Ships
They set slaves to work
building hundreds Of speedy,
sturdy ships. The roads and
the ships were built for the
army. But God. looking on,
saw that they would be use
ful for something else.
One Of the countries the
Romans had conquered was
Greece. Because the Ian
guage Of Greece was so beau
tiful and clear, many people
spoke it. And God listening,
knew that Greek would be
the perfect language for tell
ing His good news.
II a man refused to obey
the Roman laws, Roman SOL
diers marched down their
broad highways and put him
to death in a cruel way. The
cruel way was "crucifixion,"
which means that the man
was hung on a wooden cross
until he died. God, watching,
knew that the time was
growing short. This was the
way His Son must die.
God had one final choice
to make. The Baby still had
no family to care for Him.
God was His father, but the
Baby needed a mother.
Modest Girl Chosen
God searched among His
people for a woman worthy
to be the mother of His Son.
Would she be a princess liv-
ing in a palace; or a rich
mans daughter who wore
bright dresses and jewelsP
God did not choose one
Of these. He chose instead
a modest young girl named
Mary, who lived in the little
hill town of Nazareth in
Galilee. He sent His angel
Gabriel to tell Mary that she
had been chosen to be the
mother of His Son.
At first, Mary was so
amazed that she could hardly
speak. But she had always
loved God and tried to obey
Him. And so she said to the