As a child, I was one of those kids who asked lots of questions and, if I wasn't satisfied with the answers I got, I asked follow-up questions. Needless to say, I was tough on my teachers but, especially on my poor Sunday School teachers and especially about the Christmas story. Some of those questions have stuck with me throughout the years and were the inspiration for this book.
Every manger scene, for example, depicts a gathering of the baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, various animals and the "wise men." I was fascinated by the "wise men." I was even a wise man in a Christmas pageant one year. I wanted to know how the wise men, who were not Jews and who came from hundreds of miles away, knew that a star signaled the birth of a Jewish king, while the Jews, apparently, did not? How did they arrive in Bethlehem to worship baby Jesus at the same time as the nearby shepherds in the adjacent fields? How long did Mary and Joseph stay in Bethlehem before they traveled back to their home in Nazareth? How could the wise men "follow" a star? Why didn't Herod send his own people to Bethlehem? If Herod met with the wise men within days of Jesus' birth, why would Herod order all male children under the age of two to be killed? Why not just the newborns? The list went on and on. Like I said, my poor Sunday School teachers...
Anyway, the Christmas story invited critical thinking even from a child like me, and I think God loves and indulges the inquisitive minds of those who seek Him. This fictional story is not presented to challenge accepted religious thinking or to promote a revisionist history of the events any more than the song, "The Little Drummer Boy," composed by Katherine Davis, advocated the insertion of a drummer into the manger scene. Two Stars - A Christmas Story simply allowed me to revisit some of those annoying questions from my youth and to explore them through a much older lens. Even though I have offered a slightly different "take" on some parts of the Christmas story, the awesome birth of Jesus remains inviolate and, I submit, would be no less magnificent, even if parts of this fanciful story were found in the scriptural account.
Language
Target group
Interest Age: From 0 to 12 years
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 279 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
Weight
ISBN-13
978-1-952539-15-2 (9781952539152)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Tom Hunter lives in Savannah, GA with his wife, Carole. They have been married for many years and have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He is a firm believer in Jesus Christ and credits his Christian faith with helping him practice law for more than four decades with greater calmness, courtesy and civility. Tom's work is primarily in the field of general civil litigation, where emotions can sometimes run high. Having God by his side and knowing that God has everything under control has been a blessing when cases in litigation can be chaotic and outcomes are often unpredictable.His first published work, Two Wolves - An Easter Story, was a reflection upon an often-overlooked, but essential, aspect of the Easter story. It was meant to serve as a light "tutorial" for parents and as an introduction for young children to the foundation of Christian belief. Tom hoped that it would start the conversation between parent and child to address, in a non-threatening way, a concept that is both difficult and joyous, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.Tom never expected that he would write a children's book, much less two, nor did he expect to write in the Christian genre. The inspiration for Two Wolves - An Easter Story came on suddenly and, figuratively, from "out of the blue." After penning a children's book, then, it was probably natural that Tom would at some point reflect upon his childhood days, including his introduction to various Biblical stories and accounts. Those happy memories produced this book, Two Stars - A Christmas Story, another book for children. The inspiration was not sudden for this new book but, rather, came on as Tom looked back over the years and recalled fond memories of his childhood days in Sunday School. Two Stars - A Christmas Story was a catharsis of sorts so Tom crafted a fictional story that allowed him to fancifully pull some loose ends together, to fill in some gaps, to answer some childhood queries and to acknowledge the importance of his parents' love and guidance on his Christian development.
