Christmas: A Loving Celebration

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES 

Kevin’s early memories of Christmas revolve around his parents’ faith and involvement in the Lutheran church.  “I grew up going to church at least twice each week.  I was an altar boy, our family prayed together, and my father led our family as a Godly man.”  There were other sweet memories, too.  “Christmastime brought the cold weather of Minnesota and the promise of hot chocolate.”  Another great part of Christmas then was the visit from his grandfather Sorbo. “Christmas Eve in the Sorbo home with its five children and Grandpa Sam was the time for opening gifts, but not before going to church service at our local Lutheran church and a fine Christmas Eve dinner around our kitchen table.  On a teacher’s salary, everything about the Sorbo finances was humble, including our Christmases.  While we celebrated the holiday as a time of joy and gifting, we also recognized it, fundamentally, as the celebration for the freedom we have with Christ’s redemption from our sin and enslavement.”  

For Sam, Christmas conjures up very different recollections.  “I grew up with an atheist mother who claimed Jewish heritage, and I was sent to Saturday Hebrew school, although our household celebrated Christmas and Easter because Stepdad was Protestant.  Those festivities were the only expression of his Protestantism, as he never went to church, much less considered reading the Bible.”  Once a believer, Sam grew to have a new perspective, though she acknowledges that the holiday is still not easy for all believers.  “So, trust me when I say, Christmas was not my holiday, until I came to Christ.  Seems simple, right?  Not really.  Many Christians struggle to embrace the essence of the holiday spirit.  This is likely because they are distracted or caught up in all the pageantry, the commercialization, and the anxiety that family dynamics often play.”  
 
THE ANTICIPATION OF ADVENT  

Sam remembers well the excitement she and Kevin felt as they anticipated the birth of their first child, Braeden.  Sam “nested” by preparing and painting a room as a nursery for him.  Years later, she wondered what
 
it must have been like for Abram to wait, and wait, and wait some more for the fulfillment of God’s promise that he would have offspring too numerous to count.  “Do you sometimes wish the Lord would comfort you about your future?  Abram heard the word the Lord spoke to him, assuring him he would give birth to nations, and Abram believed Him, and it was counted to him as righteousness.  That’s all it took.  Because he believed, he was considered a righteous man.  Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas) is a time to prepare ourselves for the season that celebrates the birth of Christ.  The first way we should make ready is with our belief, and the best way to do that is to begin with our surroundings.  By behaving in expectation, with preparation for the message of Christmas that the Lord wants us to receive, we bring His Word to live in our hearts and foremost in our minds.”  
 
THE CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS 

The Sorbos use the traditional twelve days of Christmas, starting with Christmas Day, as a way to remember why we should rejoice over the birth of Jesus.  On the third day, the three French hens so well known in the famous carol symbolize three key characteristics of Christians: faith, hope and love.  “It is the mystery of God and the necessity of faith that make our religion real and beautiful.  On the flip side, to maintain atheism demands even more faith, arguable, than Christianity.  To imagine that nothing came out of nothing to give us everything for no reason and with no scientific explanation is laughable, and yet, that is the atheist’s contention,” they point out.  “And hope is the reason He came, because our sin condemns us to misery, but Christ’s redemptive act frees us from condemnation and allows us to beg for and receive forgiveness.  That’s hope.  Love is at the seat of our lives.  We are relational beings, ill-suited to isolation and needful of companionship,” the Sorbos remind us.  “Love is also the reason for Christ.  The only aim of His descent from on high to the world below is explained in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”      
 
THE MEANING OF EPIPHANY

January 6th, twelve days after Christmas, marks the day Christians celebrate Epiphany.  “The word means appearance or manifestation,” Sam and Kevin explain.  One epiphany they cite as an example is that of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, famous author of Gulag Archipelago.  He wrote, “Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life.  For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”  

In their own lives, the Sorbos share the epiphanies each has had as to his/her greater purpose.  Kevin knew he wanted to be an actor since he saw a Shakespeare play in the fifth grade.  Many years later, after three strokes which threatened his acting career, “Kevin started to see the fuller meaning for his drive: filming stories to bring fellow souls closer to Christ, thereby improving the culture.”  He’s been able to do so through many projects, including faith-based films, like God’s Not Dead, and narration opportunities.  Sam found her passion for acting in high school, and found success in both modeling and acting within just a few years.  “Now, Sam performs in the even more fulfilling roles of wife, mother, and educator, and has allowed her passion to lead her to discover an entirely new purpose, encouraging parents to home-educate and emancipating children from the schools.”       
 

For more information on Sam Sorbo check out the link! www.SamSorbo.com 

For more information on Sorbo Studios click the link! www.SorboStudios.com 

If You Would Like To Purchase The Book ‘Christmas 40 Days Devotional' Click the Link and Get Free Shipping! 

CREDITS

Kevin:  Co-author, Christmas 40 Days Devotional (Humanix, 2024) / Actor, director Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (2022) / Actor, Trail Blazers (2021) / Narrator, Wrath documentary, Co-author, True Faith, (2020) / Actor, Miracle in East Texas (2020)/ Actor, producer, director, The Reliant (2019) / Actor, producer, director Let There Be Light (2017) / Co-producer/voice of God, Breathe Bible Audio New Testament (Tyndale, 2017)/ and Share the Light devotional, (2018)/ Actor in more than 40 movies and TV shows, most known for his roles in hit TV series, Hercules (1993-1999), Andromeda, and Kull the Conqueror /  Appeared in movie Soul Surfer, and played atheist professor in box office hit God’s Not Dead (2014).  

Sam:  Actress, producer, Miracle in East Texas (2020) / Actress, producer, writer Let There Be Light (2017 /Executive Producer Sean Hannity) / Author, They’re Your Kids and Teach from Love (2017) / Co-Author, True Faith (2020) and Share the Light devotional (2018) / Model, radio show host - The Sam Sorbo Show / homeschool advocate / Sam and Kevin have three children: Braeden, Shane, and Octavia.