Hello, I’m Joe Pursch, and this is a Transforming Moment. The shadows were long when the man returned to his house in London in 1849, concluding another long day of labor to support his wife and their ten children. His life was always full of obligations, and even though lately he had become quite successful and to a degree even famous, he still slumped wearily into his chair in the candlelight. And then he opened the pages of a manuscript and taking a pen, he wrote out a few new pages of a book he was writing especially for his children. It was entitled “The Life of Our Lord Jesus”, and was a simplified form of the Gospel, just for children.  The man wanted to present it to his children as a Christmas gift that year, and he looked forward to reading it aloud with them circled around his chair at the fireside. Of course, he was already famous for another Christmas Story he had published a few years before, but on this night Charles Dickens, the most famous author in England, peered at the Bible before him and wrote out the story of Jesus, beginning with these words, “My Dear children, everyone ought to know about Him!” I’m Joe Pursch, and this has been a Transforming Moment.

Listen to the broadcast audio here: Transforming Moments Dickens