“The first Christmas—imagine being alive on that very day, at that very time, in the very town where Jesus was born!” —Ruth Bell Graham
For the Graham household, Christmas was an exciting time of gathering with family, laughing with friends and sharing stories. But most importantly, Billy and Ruth Graham shared the true Christmas story time and time again with those who visited their home.
At the beginning of Ruth Bell Graham’s book “Our Christmas Story,” Billy Graham shared memories of their family tradition of reading the Christmas story—and why they held the practice so dear:
Visitors to our home at Christmas are sometimes startled when I read the tragic story from the Old Testament before an evening of carols.
“Aren’t these grim thoughts for this happy time of year?” they ask. “The season of Jesus’s birth is no time to talk of death. What do Adam and Eve have to do with Christmas?”
To which we answer: Everything. Without the story of sin in the Old Testament, what can the Good News of the New Testament say? Without sin, we have no need of a Savior. We cannot separate our joy at Christ’s coming from our desperate need for Him … Nor can we separate His birth from the work He came to earth to do.
Watch Ruth Bell Graham read the Christmas story during the 1953 Billy Graham TV special:
