My daughter, Teri McKinley, and I have been co-authoring books for the past decade. Nearly 10 years ago, her husband encouraged us to write a Christmas picture book, so we started brainstorming. The Christmas story (of course) is original to the Bible. It has been written a thousand times in a thousand different ways. I knew in order to catch the eye of a publisher, what we wrote had to be something different from what was already out there.

After some major brainstorming I had an idea to write the Christmas story in chronological order using the alphabet. I included Scripture verses on each page to show where that part of the story can be found in the Bible. Teri and I created a proposal and sent it to our editors at Tyndale. They accepted the proposal and I’m happy to say the book has been in print since 2015.

The book begins with a brief note to parents, and the text begins with the letter A:

A is for Angel

An ANGEL said to Mary
“You are the favored one.
You’re going to have a baby boy
and he will be God’s Son.”

The angel told her, “You have found favor with God!
You will conceive and give birth to a son. Luke 1:30-31, NLT

As children turn the pages and follow the letters of the alphabet, the events surrounding the birth of Jesus unfold before their eyes. The illustrations by Claire Keay (selected by the publisher) are a perfect fit for the text. What was most important to me was staying true to Scripture which is why I included the Bible verses. An author is always allowed a bit of poetic license, but I am very conservative when to come to reading between the lines of Scripture.

As I’ve shared my idea for this book with others through the years, the first question I’m asked is, “What did you do for the letter X?” The second question is, “What did you do for Z?” My reply is, “You’ll have to read the book to find out!”

I’m honored and blessed to offer this Christmas book to children and their families during the holiday season. But most of all, I am thrilled with the opportunity to share the story of the real meaning of Christmas—that God sent His Son to earth to be our Lord and Savior.

And by the way: X is for Expected, and Z is for Zillions. But you’ll need to read the book to see how these words fit into the story.

Crystal 

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