Elisabeth Elliot: When people ask, "What makes you think God is love? Look at the things that He allows. Look at the earthquakes, the volcanoes, the fires, the famines, the wars. How can you say God is love?"

Lisa Barry: Well, that doesn't sound like a very festive way to start a program. But it makes a very important point. There are many people who celebrate Christmas void of any spiritual significance at all, because they echo the very words Elisabeth just said. Whether you question the existence of a loving God or just want to strengthen your faith, stay tuned for Gateway To Joy coming up next.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you again today about Christmas Eve. I think it's my favorite day of the whole year. There isn't the bustle of Christmas Day. There's the opportunity for quietness, for a fire in the fireplace, all the lights out, candles lit, perhaps, on the mantelpiece, a family gathered around together, just thinking about the story of Christmas.

A father may read the Christmas story to his children and explain to them exactly what it was that happened in that stable in Bethlehem. I would hope that many of you families sing Christmas carols together. Invite a few friends in. Invite someone who doesn't have a family to spend Christmas Eve with you.

Yesterday we talked about whether or not it's okay to have a Christmas tree. Is it a pagan custom? And I think it's okay. We can invest pagan customs with Christian significance. We can transform them for our own use. We need not reject them simply because the pagans might have thought of them before there was such a thing as Christianity.

Is it important to give gifts? I think it is. And we do need to be reminded, and so that's why it's a good idea to give gifts on certain occasions, because otherwise we're likely to forget them altogether. Do they have to be expensive gifts? Absolutely, "No." Is it important that the tree should be expensively decorated? No, again. Why not the old-fashioned popcorn strings? Paper or foil, pine cones sprayed with gold paint, vines.

When I was a student in school in Florida, there were no evergreen trees around, so we used vines sprayed with gold paint. Velvet ribbon saved, perhaps, from last year's packages. Only a few things are needed--evergreen if you have it, smilax in Florida. We used bamboo in the jungle--not a very luxuriant Christmas tree, shall we say, but we hung a few little things on it, and we made a Christmas tree out of it. Why do we do this? Because it's a celebration of joy. What joy? That Jesus was born, that God in heaven came down to earth to dwell with us, to show us what God is like.

When people ask, "What makes you think God is love? Look at the things that He allows. Look at the earthquakes, the volcanoes, the fires, the famines, the wars. How can you say God is love?" I can say it with confidence because the Bible tells me that He loved us enough to make Himself nothing and come down to this earth in the form of a helpless baby, and He lived and walked among human beings, demonstrating His love. And then, best of all, greatest of all, the proof was His death. He died for us.

In the church that I belong to, we have a lovely Christmas service called "Lessons and Carols." And the first time I ever attended that service, I was a little surprised at some of the Scripture passages because I hadn't heard them in other churches used at Christmastime.

The very first lesson is this one, from Genesis 3:8-15: "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the Garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard the sound of Thee in the Garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.' He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?' The man said, 'The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.'

Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.' The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above all wild animals. Upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."'

Now, I'm not going to attempt to exposit this passage, except to say that it's clear that we're dealing here with the entrance of sin into the world--the sin for which Jesus Christ had to come to earth and give His life. It was He who was the Lamb of God, and He had to make that sacrifice for us because we disobeyed, because Adam and Eve disobeyed, and all of us since Adam and Eve disobey.

But there's that wonderful prophetic word in verse 15 of Genesis 3: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." That's a prophecy of how Jesus Christ is going to have the victory over sin and death.

And then the fifth lesson in that service of lessons and carols is from Luke 1: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Hail, O favored one. The Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father, David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."'

Now can you imagine this humble girl in a humble home in a very small town called Nazareth, receiving this visitor with this astounding news? And this girl, Mary, said to the angel, "'How shall this be, since I have no husband?' And the angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold your kinswoman Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.' And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."

The story of the glory of heaven brought into a common, little house in Nazareth to a simple peasant girl, who must have been amazed and baffled, but she was instantly obedient. How often you and I insist on explanations and understanding before we're willing to be obedient. There are many things in God's world that will never be understood until we obey. Her response, Mary's response--"Let it be to me according to your word. I am the handmaid of the Lord"--should be our response, too, shouldn't it? Whatever He asks us to do.

You who are alone this Christmas, thinking of all the old places and people gone from your life--will this be an occasion for feeling sorry for yourself? Or will it be, perhaps for the first time, a quiet opportunity for reflection, adoration, thanksgiving, praise, meditating on the tremendous fact of God becoming a tiny baby for your sake and mine, for the salvation of the world, for bringing to us joy that is really divine--the divine gift of joy?

It's my prayer that God will comfort all who are lonely, that God will reveal Himself as only God can do to every heart that is open to Him, that this Christmas may be marked in a new way with a fresh understanding that it was Almighty God, the creator of the stars, the One who raises the tides and lowers them, the One who controls the winds, that Almighty God became a helpless baby. It's my prayer that you will begin to turn to Him. Maybe you should turn your radio off for a few minutes and think about the gift that God has given in Himself.

Lisa Barry: For those of you experiencing some loneliness this holiday season, I'm sure this is a very difficult time. Maybe the ones you love are gone and there's only a memory left now. But we can all benefit from Elisabeth's words of comfort and make this holiday season a memorable one. Not because we're surrounded by family necessarily, but because Christ became that much more real to us.

Maybe for you the loneliness issue goes even deeper than that. Maybe you've never learned to trust Christ through a trial in your life. Or maybe you never knew that being alone could feel so bad. I have a book by Elisabeth Elliot I'd like to suggest you read. It's simply called LONELINESS. In it you'll read about finding God in the most unexpected places and how He reaches out to you when you least expect it. If you've got an aching void in your life right now, let this Christmas be the landmark in your life when you finally fill it.

For information on how to purchase that, you can write to us at this address: Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Well, tomorrow be sure and join us, because Elisabeth will be sharing a powerful portrayal of Christ that will bring your focus back to the real meaning of Christmas. Be with us then for another Gateway To Joy.