Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace

A lovely group of stories to inspire the true Christmas Spirit. Seven chapters, each with a different story, each filled with an unexpected thought on Christmas and how we have come to view it. Written to focus on several of the traditional Christmas events each Holiday Season, James Calvin Schaap provides a unique and refreshing view of each. These include: The Baby and 'Forgetting Jesus', The Party and 'The Facts of Life', The Gifts and 'She'll Love It', The Church and 'Finding Something', The Pageant and 'First Cry in a Stable', The Afterglow and 'Merry Madness', and The Snowfall and 'Joy and Miracle'. The subtitle to this book is apt. These are 'stories of startling joy and perfect peace' and are worth remembering. If you are looking for a quick evening read to transport your thoughts from the commercial holiday season to the true joy of the season, you will find this book a very worth read. I recommend it highly and plan to give it as a gift for someone who needs to remember what Christmas is all about or perhaps read it again for myself when I get caught up in the craziness of what we call Christmas sometimes. This is simply an enchanting read. Reviewed by: Keiki Hendrix Reviewed for: The Vessel Project

Finding Christmas by Jacob Calvin Schaap is a collection of short stories that display the real meaning of Christmas in surprising ways. Schaap finds the Christmas spirit in unusual places: a talkative cowgirl bus driver, a teenage daughter's unexpected pregnancy, and a church pageant so hardcore it has manure! The stories are filled with humor and real human emotion: expectation, fear, frustration, and sadness. Readers will find themselves laughing and crying as the characters find Jesus in places surprising and heart-breaking. It's a quick read to help get your heart in the right place this holiday season.

You might think that this will be just like every sweet Christmas story you've read. It's not. This collection of short stories about Christmas, in my opinion, is very out of the ordinary. I loved it, but I want to share a few things with you so you can be prepared for a startling book that is worth reading. Often when I read a Christian fiction or "inspirational" fiction book, my husband will see it sitting around and roll his eyes at me (good naturedly). This book defies what typical Christian fiction is like. There is a realism and honesty to how Schaap writes about the human heart, about the characters in each story. The lack of such honesty and realism is why my husband often rolls his eyes at other books. But, back to Finding Christmas...often, I would say, the tone of the short stories is cynical--but that is the way our society is today though you don't often find that cynicism in Christian fiction. As you read the stories, you may be prone to a critical spirit towards the characters--"How could they feel that way? How could they act that way? How could they be that way?" But, when we really face the sinfulness in our hearts, we are all that way (maybe not all of us--but I know there have been times when I have struggled and thought a few of the things some of the characters in the stories thought.) Yet, amidst that sin, is Christ. The startling joy of Christmas. He came to save us from our sins. That is the very best gift of Christmas and it is the gift that James Schaap shares in this book with those who choose to read it. I hope you will... One last note, I think this is an unusual book that both men and women would enjoy reading.

What a wonderful book to begin reading early in the Advent season. The heart-warming stories will touch your heart and fill you with Christmas spirit. Each year I look for a book to read at the beginning of the Christmas season to help me focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Finding Christmas does the trick!

"Mystery". The professor is an academia sophisticate while the bus driver is obese working crass. He is polite, but scornful as she relates her tale of marriage means abuse until he realizes in her clumsy way she has told him the STARTLING JOY of Christmas. "The Baby". Eighth grader Gina plays Mary at the school show, but director Nelvie forgot to bring the "baby Jesus"; Gina finds the right "old doll". ""The Party". Verona's son sired a child with Kelly, but refused to marry her. Kelly married someone else who adopted Mandy as his. However, Verona wants to be part of Mandy's life, but cannot until Kelly's mom gives the sad secret grandma a special Yuletide present. "The Gifts". Julia is downhearted that her fifteen-year-old daughter is pregnant and wants to raise the child while she prefers the baby be given up for adoption. While waiting for her daughter at the airport, Julia sees God's miracles. "The Church". Mom wants her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren to attend church, but they insist they have not found any. She comes from Iowa to Seattle to help them understand there is more to life than work. "The Pageant". Kathy insists that too much sentimentality spoils the true meaning of Christmas so there are no kids acting as singing animals in the manger. Thirteen years old Angela challenges the adult insisting that is part of celebrating. "The Afterglow". The day after Christmas humanity returns to normal ignoring places like the Bethany House orphanage. Aunt Mary is dispirited when little Laney says her father is near, but will never visit the orphanage. She must find her post Christmas spirit to insure Laney and the others can rejoice in love not rejection. "The Snowfall". The theater professor is upset that the girls disrupted the performance, but afterward a retired missionary thanks him for a refreshing show that leads him to an epiphany about Luke. These are flawed selfish people who in small ways learn the true meaning of Christmas without any divine miracle; James Calvin Schaap encourages his audience to find their own little miracle in everyday life. Harriet Klausner