Winning Ways: If Not Us, Then Who's Going To Do It?

The animated classic A Charlie Brown Christmas airs on one of the major television networks every holiday season. This year, there's even a critically-acclaimed app for your mobile device that's built on the beloved Christmas special.

But the show almost failed to see any air time when it was first proposed back in 1965.

Two producers working closely with Charlie Brown creator Charles Schulz remember their desperate efforts to first convince a network to show the special. All the major networks were hesitant. Finally, one agreed, and the great cartoonist got to work.

A memorable part of the animated tale occurs when Linus answers Charlie Brown's plaintive cry, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Linus walks to center stage, requests a spot light, then recites from Luke 2 the biblical account of Jesus' birth. "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown," he concludes.

While the program was in development, the producers cautioned Schulz about putting the scene in the special. They were convinced the religious message wouldn't go over well with the network. 

Undeterred, Schulz faced both producers and said, "If not us, then who's going to do it?"

So true. And there's a lesson there for you and me.

We have co-workers, friends, and relatives who still need to understand the Christmas message. Someone once told us, and now we need to pass it along.

As Schultz would say, "If not us, then who's going to do it?"

It could start with a simple invitation to a Christmas program at church:

A holiday fellowship hosted by your Bible study group.

This Sunday's choir performance, Hope Is Born, Emmanuel, at 10 a.m. 

The Christmas Eve Candlelight service at 6:00 p.m. on the 24th or the Christmas Day Celebration service at 11:00 a.m. on the 25th.

Our hope is that activities like this will give you an opening to explain why Christ's coming has become important to you. 

Our friends may not be as explicit as Charlie Brown, but they're still wanting an answer to the question: "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Be Linus to someone this season!

Tom