This Christmas message is for every homeschool parent who wonders if your faithful, daily work truly matters—and to remind us all why we’ve chosen this path of classical Christian education.
As parents teaching our children at home, we’ve embraced something countercultural: we believe the world’s pursuit of power and prestige pales in comparison to cultivating wisdom, virtue, and humility in our children. We know that real strength comes not from worldly success, but from walking humbly with our God.
As a fellow parent in this journey and a follower of Christ, Robert Bortins, CEO of Classical Conversations, has been reflecting deeply on how God works—and how that should shape everything we do in classical, Christian education of our children. Read on to be encouraged by the message of God’s great reversal.
Christmas 2025: Returning to the Manger
If you are like my family, you pull out the nativity scene each Christmas, hoping nothing broke in storage. We help our children set up the same figures that I arranged as a child – sheep and shepherds, Joseph and Mary, and baby Jesus in the manger. Mary kneels quietly beside the manger, hands folded, head bowed. It’s easy to overlook her in the scene, yet God chose this young woman for the most extraordinary reversal in human history.
As families engaged in classical Christian education know well, Christmas is the perfect time to reflect on how God uses the humble to accomplish His mighty purposes—a pattern that shapes how we homeschool our children.
I’ve been reflecting on how God consistently chooses the lowly to accomplish His mighty purposes. Two mothers, separated by a thousand years, sang remarkably similar songs about this divine pattern. Their songs reveal something profound about how God works – and how we should approach Him.
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Hannah’s Prayer: A Model for Christian Homeschool Parents
Hannah was barren, mocked by her rival, misunderstood by the priest. Yet when God opened her womb and gave her Samuel, she sang: “The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and lifts up” (1 Samuel 2:6-7). Her son Samuel would anoint David, Israel’s greatest earthly king. Through her suffering and reversal, God was building the royal line.
Mary’s Magnificat: The Foundation of Classical Education
A thousand years later, a virgin named Mary received an impossible announcement. Her response echoed Hannah’s song: “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate” (Luke 1:51-52). Her son would be the eternal King, born not in a palace but laid in a manger.
Both women recognized the same pattern: God delights in reversing human expectations. The barren bears the prophet. The Virgin bears the Messiah. The humble are exalted while the proud are scattered.
The Great Reversal: Living Our Christian Worldview
This is what Tolkien called “eucatastrophe” – the sudden joyous turn when all seems lost. The Incarnation is history’s supreme eucatastrophe. When humanity was dead in sin, expecting judgment, God sent… a baby. The Greeks sought wisdom through philosophy and rhetoric. God provided wisdom through what appeared to be foolishness – His Son in a feeding trough.
Paul understood this when he wrote, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). The classical world’s values were turned upside down by a child born to a peasant girl.
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Living the Reversal: Christian Homeschool Encouragement
This divine pattern shapes how we educate our children. In classical education, we embrace holy reversals: we become like children to gain wisdom, study “dead” languages to enliven modern thought, memorize to gain freedom of expression. We teach our children that the last shall be first, that servants become leaders, that true greatness comes through humility.
So this Christmas, as you place Mary beside the manger, tell your children about her song of reversal. Tell them how God still chooses the humble and lifts up the lowly. He still uses the weak to shame the strong. In His upside-down kingdom, a classical, Christian education that begins with simple chants and memory work produces scholars. Parents who feel inadequate become their children’s best teachers.
May we, like Mary, respond to God’s reversals with faith: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). As we celebrate the birth of the Savior, we are reminded of the greatest reversal of all, eternal life, for those who believe.
Merry Christmas,
Robert Bortins
Chief Executive Officer, Classical Conversations
Fill your cup with more Christmas reflections:
- Understanding God’s Gift of Jesus Through Old Testament Stories
- The Magi and the Nativity
- The Mystery of Christmas
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