title: Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace
author:  James Calvin Schaap 
description: That I wholeheartedly agree with Kathy Simpson about oversentimentalizing Christmas does not change the fact that Ms. Simpson is not my favorite human being. She gets her way by sheer force of character. She's great to have on your team. Oppose her, and you lose.<br /><br />"There's an awful lot of silliness connected to Christmas celebrations already, and we don't want to add to them," she said. She held forth at the end of Christmas pageant practice, and she had all the kids--shepherds, wise men, Mary and Joseph, the whole works--in the first two pews for her address. "Animals singing and all of that? It only sentimentalizes the real story: that Jesus came for us, for sinners." She barely paused for breath. "Did he cry? Well, of course he did. He was human. Humans cry. Case closed. So this foolish little line, 'No crying he made,' is just ridiculous, sentimental hooey."<br /><br />I knew how my daughter would take that remark. For most of her thirteen years, Angela has considered The Lion King the greatest story ever told.<br /><br />"Jesus was born in a barn because, quite literally, there was no room in town." Kathy pointed in the air. "Have any of you ever not found a motel? It's awful. Jesse and I were in Athens, Ohio, once, years ago, and we couldn't find a thing, but that's another story."<br /><br />Thank goodness, I thought.<br /><br />--from "First Cry in a Stable"
zlib_text: Finding  
  Christmas
  
  Finding  
  Christmas
  
  > Stories of Startling Joy  
  >  and Perfect Peace  
  >  
  >  
  >  
  >
  
  James Calvin Schaap
  
  ![](Images/image00052.jpeg)
  
  © 2005 by James Calvin Schaap
  
  Published by Revell  
  a division of Baker Publishing Group  
  P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287  
  [www.revellbooks.com](http://www.revellbooks.com)
  
  Previously published under the title _Startling Joy_
  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,  
  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any  
  means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the  
  prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief  
  quotations in printed reviews.
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  
  Schaap, James C., 1948-  
  Finding Christmas : stories of startling joy and perfect peace  
  / James Calvin Schaap.
  
  p. cm.
  
  Originally published: Startling joy. c2005.  
  ISBN 0-8007-1939-5 (cloth)