As our family huddles close, with the Action Bible's vivid illustrations before us, we invite you to join the warmth of our Christmas celebration. Our kids, Adelaide and Ryan, lend their voices to the cherished nativity story, as we traverse from the bustling streets of Bethlehem to the tranquil manger scene, punctuated by our playful banter and the occasional giggle over a reading mishap. Together, we uncover the profound joy and enduring message tucked within the tale of Jesus' birth, making it a family affair that extends an open invitation to our listeners to find the same wonder and meaning this Christmas.
The spirit of the season sparkles as we unwrap our favorite Christmas memories and traditions. The anticipation of gift-giving, amplified by the convenience of modern apps like DrawNames.com, mingles with lively debates on the merits of pine-scented versus hassle-free trees. Through candid family anecdotes and heartfelt tips, we craft an episode that is as much about the laughter-filled chaos of holiday gatherings as it is an earnest reflection on the significance of this time of year. Tune in for a special community holiday message, and a nudge to celebrate with gratitude, as we wish you joy and connection, until we meet again in the coming year.
The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story (Action Bible Series) https://a.co/d/bcjkmoL
https://www.drawnames.com/
As our family huddles close, with the Action Bible's vivid illustrations before us, we invite you to join the warmth of our Christmas celebration. Our kids, Adelaide and Ryan, lend their voices to the cherished nativity story, as we traverse from the bustling streets of Bethlehem to the tranquil manger scene, punctuated by our playful banter and the occasional giggle over a reading mishap. Together, we uncover the profound joy and enduring message tucked within the tale of Jesus' birth, making it a family affair that extends an open invitation to our listeners to find the same wonder and meaning this Christmas.
The spirit of the season sparkles as we unwrap our favorite Christmas memories and traditions. The anticipation of gift-giving, amplified by the convenience of modern apps like DrawNames.com, mingles with lively debates on the merits of pine-scented versus hassle-free trees. Through candid family anecdotes and heartfelt tips, we craft an episode that is as much about the laughter-filled chaos of holiday gatherings as it is an earnest reflection on the significance of this time of year. Tune in for a special community holiday message, and a nudge to celebrate with gratitude, as we wish you joy and connection, until we meet again in the coming year.
The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story (Action Bible Series) https://a.co/d/bcjkmoL
https://www.drawnames.com/
Welcome back to the two fish podcast Christmas edition. I'm Nick, I'm Aaron and this week we're sitting down with a couple of special guests and read through the birth of a savior.
Speaker 2:That's right to fish community. We are through Thanksgiving and now we are into Christmas. It flew by it did.
Speaker 1:And this season is always super busy Everyone's doing Christmases, everyone's wrapping up the end of the year with work, taking vacations but the important part of this season is, of course, the birth of our savior, which is at the foundation of our faith. So this week we have two special guests. They were with us, I think, two years ago. Yeah, it's our kids. We have Adelaide and Ryan. How are you guys?
Speaker 1:Good, so they're here with us this week to read through the Christmas story and, like most episodes, aaron and I usually tend to read from different versions of the Bible. I'm ESV or die.
Speaker 2:I'm an IV or NLT normally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and we always recommend, you know, having a couple of Bible reading through different versions, but we have a special version this week Ryan has offered the action Bible. Yeah, it looked kind of like God's redemptive story.
Speaker 4:Looks like a graphic novel.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the word.
Speaker 2:Graphic novel. It's fun to read.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I definitely recommend it if you'd like to see, like, what it actually looks like.
Speaker 2:Back in our day it would have been called like almost like a comic book. A comic book, would you call it?
Speaker 4:Adelaide, a graphic novel. Graphic novel Christian I mean comic book is more like super, is more like superheroes and stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, jesus is the superhero of our faith.
Speaker 4:I didn't really like that yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I know what you mean. So. So we're going to read out of the graphic novel Christian, the Christian book award, the action Bible, and we're going to the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus. So, ryan, lunch, kick us off.
Speaker 2:It's like a. Is it a Matthew version of it or is this just the action Bible version?
Speaker 1:It's? It's based on Matthew 1 18 through 211, and Luke 2 1 through 20.
Speaker 2:So they kind of combined kind of combines it together.
Speaker 1:All right and tells the story. So here we go, ryan. Why don't you start us off?
Speaker 3:Joseph believes the angel and Mary's Mary, even though her pregnancy seems shameful to others. One day, the news comes that the Roman Empire cast are on our good as they want to a concess. Everyone must go to his hometown to be continued, even though Mary's baby is due. Now Joseph and Mary have to go from North to Bethlehem, exhausted. We've traveled a long way. My wife is very tired. We need a place to stay. I'm sorry, but Bethlehem is crowded because of the census. We don't have any more empty rooms. Exhausted, mary and Joseph have no choice but to stay in a stable. They're they're surrounded by animals. Mary gives birth to Jesus. She keeps her baby warm in a manager full of hay.
Speaker 1:A manager keeps him in the manager. All right, we should laugh. Keep going. We'll make a couple corrections. We need that one. Start that one over.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's a manger, I'm an manager.
Speaker 3:I'm an manager, okay, um. Exhausted, mary and Joseph have no choice to stay, but to stay in a stable. They're surrounded by animals. Mary gives birth to Jesus. She keeps her baby in a major, major food buffet. The same night, some shepherds are watching their sheep on the hill outside of Bethlehem. Suddenly, a great lights splits the night. What is happening? God saved us. Don't be afraid. I bring good news for you in the whole world. Today, of the city of David, a savior has been born to you. You will find the baby lying in a manger.
Speaker 1:All right. So let's pause there and kind of talk about a little bit. So Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem, caesar's the Roman emperor, and they're going for a census to be counted, and she's pregnant with baby.
Speaker 4:Jesus. Suddenly, the sky is filled with a choir of angels singing praise to God. Glory to God in the highest and peace to peoples on earth. The angels leave and once again darkness falls upon the hills. Let's go to Bethlehem. We must see the child of God for ourselves. The shepherds hurry off to Bethlehem. The crowded town of Bethlehem sleeps lovingly. Mary has wrapped her baby in strips of cloth and put him in a manger. That's where the shepherds find him. An angel told us that the savior has been born. We have to tell everyone this great news. In a land far east, wise men see something strange in the sky. That new star is brighter than all the rest and must have some special meaning. It's a sign that the king of Jesus has been born. Let's go to Jerusalem and find the king.
Speaker 4:After months of travel, the wise men reach Jerusalem. We have come to worship the baby king of Jews. Where can we find him? He must be mistaken. No king has been born here recently. When the wise men inquire at the palace, king Heroid, who has committed more than one murder to protect his throne, impatiently comes up with a plan Look for the child in Bethlehem. When you find him, come back and tell me where he is. Of course I want to worship him too, and when I find that child I'll kill him. No one is going to be king of the Jews except me. Following Heroid's instructions, the wise men travel from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The star they have seen in the east continues to guide them. Look, the star is over that house. Our long journey is finished. This is where the child lives. Mary and Joseph are surprised to receive rich foreigners in their humble house. We have come to worship the child, except our gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.
Speaker 2:So there you have it. We have read through the Christmas story. That section there, read by Adeline, talks about the wise men and how the star appeared to them, and they followed that star to find Jesus. And Heroid tried to use the three wise men to capture Jesus before trying to kill him before he ever becomes king. Right Before he was really known to the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So from the beginning he was being chased.
Speaker 4:And Youth Group. We talked about this how long the star would have stayed to guide them on how it could have they could have just seen it once and it could have disappeared. Or if it stayed through the whole entire night and they followed it the whole time. And then we also talked about how there could have been more wise men, but only three wise men brought gifts.
Speaker 1:They probably had a crew of people with them traveling with them.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:They said like was it a one day?
Speaker 2:journey.
Speaker 1:I don't know it's from a land far out, so I'd assume it'd be a long travel, which would bring in the question how long was the star there one day? Or was it there before and they met that night? Or was it that they see it that night and traveled?
Speaker 2:after.
Speaker 1:And then they didn't show up till maybe three years later.
Speaker 4:Oh, we did talk about that, I think because there's something that says a child in order to an order for them to be killed. I think, in the way that the king wanted to kill him, they had to be under two years old and they said, like they talked about how the reason he wasn't killed is because he must have been two years old.
Speaker 3:Well, my thing about the star is I think it actually stayed there because and it didn't disappear because in the book it says right here that they found the star way over there and they followed it. So if they followed it was still in the sky and then it was over the house, so it would have been there the whole time. Yeah, yeah, could be, so that it could guide them to the house of where baby Jesus was laying.
Speaker 1:Those are both good theories. We'll have to ask him when we get there. Hey, was that star there the whole time?
Speaker 2:Now, I think, I think that's an interesting point, like we can reflect on that and say sometimes we we see something and then it goes away and we don't follow it, but sometimes we need to stick to that path.
Speaker 1:That's true. And then the section before was the shepherds. They were out tending the flocks, which I think is it's at night, and then all of a sudden, this bright light comes and it's an angel, which would be pretty scary. I would imagine your first instinct to be to freak out, which is what they did. And they are in the angels like no, don't worry, I come with good news.
Speaker 4:I saw this thing like we don't know what the angels look like, so they could have looked like genuinely scary?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, they shouldn't look scary and and everything a holy light, so they should be bright and the way Jesus sometimes described him of what he wore. He wore a really nice white robe and that means he was holy just like the angels could have been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting. I know, in Revelation it talks about angelic beings and they don't look like they look like in the action Bible, they look a little more freaky. So, like you were saying, adela, and that that's probably what it was, so what is the true meaning of Christmas?
Speaker 3:Celebrate Jesus's birth and about, about when Jesus was born and how he was remembered and how he died for our sins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is, I think is the true gift of Christmas is that we have a savior that was born, that will eventually like you said, ryan die for our sins. So we celebrate his birth this Christmas season because we know the gift that he was for humanity. How do we know he was? More on Christmas, oh you're going to get down a rabbit hole there and go down.
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I think I read on it today in nine months before March, and the Bible points to when the angel came to Mary, which was the six month I believe. So then you can calculate out nine months later would be when he would be born, which would have been late, possibly December, January.
Speaker 4:So they have went with December 25th, so it's not like we know a matter of fact, this is the day he was born. This is just the day we choose to celebrate it. I think you could say that, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know that. They have the day pinpointed. Nowhere in the Bible Does it say that December 25th December. I always want to say the 26th. Nowhere in the Bible does it say he was born on December 25th.
Speaker 3:And it never says it has any snow.
Speaker 1:Do they have snow in Jerusalem? I don't know. Do?
Speaker 4:they even have snow in the Bible.
Speaker 2:There's, I believe, snow is mentioned.
Speaker 3:I mean like it could actually been December 25th, because if it's been passed down for so many generations, because, like ever since then, it's gone down and, down and down on the same exact day, so it could have actually been like the 23rd or the 25th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it very well could have been. The other interesting thing that you probably don't know is back then they went by the Jewish calendar and not the Jewish calendar have one last month or something. I think it has one more month.
Speaker 4:What did they call it?
Speaker 1:The coldest month in Israel. Just fact check here January tends to be the coldest month, averaging 57 degrees, so I doubt they get a lot of snow in Jerusalem.
Speaker 2:No snow in Jerusalem.
Speaker 4:So Jerusalem is like Florida.
Speaker 1:Like Florida in the winter. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, let's stop going to Florida, let's go to Jerusalem. So, anyways, there are the two different types of calendars. I don't think there's anything in the Bible that gives us a definite day, but this is the day they have went with?
Speaker 4:What month did the angels came to tell whatever you said earlier, like the six month mark or something?
Speaker 2:I think part of your answer to your question, adeline. If you go to Luke, chapter one, verse 26, the birth of Jesus foretold, it starts out with in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
Speaker 4:Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:That is John the Baptist's mom, ryan's finding it in the action Bible.
Speaker 2:That is when God sent the angel to Mary.
Speaker 1:So the sixth month of Elizabeth, so it's not necessarily the time calendar.
Speaker 2:Which would have came from Luke, who would have been a guy that researched it was not first hand knowledge he would have researched it and probably went to Mary and Elizabeth and said, hey, what was this time frame? Yeah, so somehow we've landed on December 25th, but I don't know exactly. And if you go down this rabbit hole, like I've been trying to research and figure out and Adeline is just pointing it out and asking the questions on this episode, which I wasn't really prepared for, but there was the Jewish calendar, which is different than what we go by now, and I think there's some give and take. On the actual day, yeah, but what is your favorite thing about Christmas?
Speaker 3:Um, presents, put up, put up a good fight, but I'm definitely gonna put up giving presents. I mean giving presents for second, getting presents for third. And number one we all know is celebrating Jesus and the day they're celebrating Jesus. So I think it's a great reminder about his life he gave us.
Speaker 1:What about you, adeline?
Speaker 4:I feel like they're always like I don't know. Yeah, I just like them. And then I like waking up on Christmas morning, because it's like a magical feeling, and I like celebrating Jesus too, nice.
Speaker 2:I like that magical feeling on magical feeling.
Speaker 4:I mean when you wake up at five o'clock in the morning and you're not even tired, like why can't I do that every day?
Speaker 2:That's me that's probably a valid question. What? What is your favorite part? I?
Speaker 1:I I do enjoy seeing all the family. Some you don't necessarily see all your family all the time, but getting together as family, that would. It can be stressful. When you got to see your family and in-laws and cousins and all that stuff it does get stressful, but at the end of the day I do enjoy the family aspect of it. And then, of course, jesus, and Then one of the Christmases we always do this is a little tangent here we always do white elephant gift and you get to pick a gift if you win bingo, oh great.
Speaker 1:So we've laid bingo on Christmas and that's super fun.
Speaker 2:Do you do? You guys do like goofy white elephant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, usually it's like a ten dollar limit and then so you buy a get.
Speaker 2:Well, our family sometimes, like you, go to the drunk juror.
Speaker 1:That's Bailey. Bailey raids our basement and tries to find a bunch of things that she can pack together. I Would rather just go buy something quick. Okay, how about you, aaron?
Speaker 2:I would say I Like Christmas morning as well. I usually take selfies of everybody Because everybody gets up early and you look a little rough. So Christmas morning is pretty fun. And then just getting together. I would agree, getting together family and some family you don't get to see you all the time is a good part of that. Yeah, and like Ryan said, the presents bring in a pretty good fight. Even as an adult, you never know what you're gonna get yeah our family now does a.
Speaker 2:There's an app Draw, draw names, draw names so you put everybody's name in there. You set a dollar limit to the gifts. Yeah they can put together like a wish list and that's exactly what we do.
Speaker 1:We just don't have an app and so it makes it super hard and confusing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's an app out there.
Speaker 1:All right, we're gonna have to look that up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you, if you do that, there is an app out there to help you guys with this.
Speaker 3:Okay, I Don't know.
Speaker 4:I can look, I haven't pulled up called draw names calm draw names, calm there you go.
Speaker 2:That's a good idea, it's free.
Speaker 4:Even better and it draws the person the same for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other thing that we do always traditionally, traditionally during the Christmas season, is we go and cut down a tree. Do you guys do that?
Speaker 2:We are doing that tomorrow Nice with another group of friends.
Speaker 1:Cool, we did it on last week, sunday maybe, oh, monday after work. We typically always go and cut real one down, but someone in our family does not like real trees. What do you mean? Who your mom? She would route. She says they prickle and make her bleed.
Speaker 3:So she doesn't like putting.
Speaker 1:So we do every other year, we do a fake tree.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, but so, once again, I know we talked about this for Thanksgiving episode, but this is just another great time to make sure that you you hit that pause button, you take some time and think about your motives during this season.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm currently going through a couple of Divos one is about Motives and the other one is about integrity and I think this is a good time to reflect on those and Just what you are seeking and your, your daily activities and what you're seeking through this season. And if you have kids, sit down and, I think, open up a Bible and and read the Christmas story. Maybe you'd find an action Bible. It looks pretty cool. I have not seen one of those You're also brought to you by the action Bible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our other unofficial sponsor, the action Bible. So, anyways, we hope that the two fish community has a very blessed holiday season. No matter where you are in this world, we hope that you can take time to reflect on Jesus and what he has done for you.
Speaker 1:That's right. Hit that pause button in life, but also hit the subscribe and like button on this episode. Have a great Christmas. We'll see you next year on the two fish podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning in this week. If you enjoyed this episode, hit those like and subscribe buttons also. Head over to Two fish podcast calm to join the rest of the two fish community and all of our social media platforms.