Only in fiction can one imagine a lamb becoming a shepherd! That would be quite a role reversal. Yet there in the book of Revelation, with the prophecy of the “great multitude which no one could count” worshiping before the throne of God, we are told that “the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd” (Revelation 7:17a).

Where did the word “Christmas” come from, and what does it mean?

First called the Feast of the Nativity and recognized as early as A.D. 273, the custom spread to Egypt by 432, and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia.

The end of the word (“mas”) in English is “missa” in Latin, a form of the verb “mittere” which means “to send.” Thus Christmas is literally “Christ is sent” or “the sending of Christ.”