Yesterday we heard an excellent sermon illustration that really hit home for me. Pastor Mark shared about a friend of his who was on a warship during Vietnam who tried to sleep after his 24 hour shift. He was exhausted and ready for a nice nap! The problem was that they began their cannon gun practice during the time he should have been sleeping. After 12 hours of trying to sleep, he realized it was useless. After several days of little or no sleep, he finally went to his commander and told him about the problem. The commander responded, “We’ll look into it” The man returned to his job disappointed knowing that what the commander really meant was, “To bad! Deal with it!”

After almost a week of very little sleep, the exhausted sailer once again walked over to his bunk, laid down and fell asleep without hearing a single cannon that night! Why? Because his body got use to it. It was able to shut out the sounds of the canon in order to rest.

How many times have we heard the story of Jesus’ Birth and in a sense “fall asleep.” We’ve heard it so many times that we can tune out the entire story. However, this is one STORY that is like a Canon. It is an awesome and powerful story that should cause us each year to give an attentive ear to the message of Christ’s birth and ministry!

Hope this little illustration will ring in your ears this Christmas season!