On the surface, it’s not logical — as if logic could be applied to God.
But it’s one of those questions children ask. Or, in this case, it’s a question Bailey Bear asks of his father in a new children’s book, “Does God Celebrate Christmas?,” by Chattanoogan Phillip Rodgers.
The premise is that Bailey is at the mall with his dad at Christmastime, but doesn’t see evidence of God, doesn’t see a manger, doesn’t see the word “Jesus” anywhere.
“It’s a worldwide epidemic,” with the book imitating life, Rodgers said. “It’s become so politically correct” not to use words that convey the reason for the season. “But it’s what [Christmas] is about.”
In the book, when Bailey asks the question of his father, the older bear takes his son to the mall’s Christmas tree and tells him the real Christmas story from the perspective of the Star of Bethlehem. He assures him how important the event was for God.
Bailey, sadly, comes to the conclusion the mall has forgotten the birthday of God’s son.
How Christmas is celebrated can be somewhat controversial, said Rodgers. While some would say the thought of God celebrating Christmas is ridiculous, he said, others insist God mandated the holiday.
“I’ve come to the conclusion,” Rodgers said, “that God always looks at the heart, at what your heart’s contention is. And since the angels appeared and sang at [Christ’s] birthday, that sounds like a party to me. It’s not all Santa Claus and presents, but God never mandated that you couldn’t celebrate the birthday of Christ.
“Does God Celebrate Christmas?” is the fourth book in the author’s “Discovering God” series (www.DiscoveringGodSeries.com). It has received a “recommended” seal from Focus on the Family, a global Christian ministry.
Although Rodgers says his daughters, ages 10 and 7, ask provocative questions from time to time, the question that hatched the book came from events he was doing in Madison, Wis. There, at a radio station-sponsored event at a restaurant, people were handing out bracelets that said, “Just Say Merry Christmas.”
“That touched me,” he said. “I kept thinking about it. It started to bug me, and that spawned the book.”
Among the books Rodgers is considering next are “Where Does God Live?,” “What Does God Eat?” and “Does God Have a Cell Phone?”
“I get hit with all kinds of stuff,” he said of questions children throw at him. Through four books, Rodgers said, the biggest lesson he’s learned is that God is motivated by his love for humankind.
“We all have a purpose,” he said. “None of us is here by accident. And I think some things are predestined for us. I’m discovering that, man, God thought about us before [the earth’s] first foundation. He knew what he wanted us to be, what a purpose [we would] serve.”
Regrettably, Rodgers said, some people believe nobody cares.
“That is so false,” he said. “How big that love [of God] is — that kind of crushes that.”