The Christmas season that is upon our family is definitely a different one for us. Renee' and I have been married for 17 and a half years now, and while our tradition has not really been set in stone in any sense, we do tend to do the same general things each year. My years as a pastor in Franklin meant that our activities at Christmas time were somewhat determined by the church's Christmas schedule. So some years Christmas Eve was spent at Renee's parents, some years it was spent at home with our church family. A few times we had family with us over the holiday. While there was some variety over the years, we still generally spent the season with people that we love. We were always intentional to make Christmas about Jesus - a difficult thing to do when the Advent adverts begin sometime shortly after the fourth of July. Fantastic memories and helpful family tradition has developed over the years. Christmas has always been about being with the people we love and Jesus. I've been pleased with the results.
This year everything changes. The people that we have always spent the holiday season with are now a bit further than an afternoon's drive away. People who have spent their lives working in an overseas context know this experience well but it is a very new experience for us. Frankly, we have been feeling the strain of distance from friends and family since thanksgiving. Cori had a birthday the other day, and while her grandparents were able to watch her open some Birthday presents over Skype - it doesn't seem quite the same. It isn't quite the same.
This year Christmas can not be about being with the people we love and Jesus. This year, it's just about Jesus because the people we love are thousands of miles away.
It is a little bit ironic that "gathering with family" has become such a significant piece of the Christmas holiday come to think about it. Jesus left his family to come to earth. I am a firm believer that the incarnation is all about missions and, conversely, missions is all about incarnation. The message of grace could only be known and received when Christ left heaven and all that was beautiful there. He became one of us. He had to be born in rather unseemly and difficult circumstances. He lived with us. God lived in human flesh and ate human food and breathed human air. He died as one us. It's a bit overwhelming to think about, really.
We are going to miss our family and friends this year. We already do. We know that Christmas is not about Santa Claus
(I wrote about that last year). However, this Christmas we are finding that it's not even about gathering with family and friends, as beautiful and Christ exalting as that can be.
It's all about incarnation. It's His cross-cultural grace proclamation and his continued presence with us -
Emanuel.
I am going to close this rambling blog with two thoughts.
One: We really do miss all of you and will be praying for you - that you will know the presence of the One who was born to die this season of incarnation. We wish we could there (or even better - that you could be here!)
Two: The words of Nate Saint express what I'm wanting to say here better than I know how to put into words
"As we have a high old time this Christmas, may we who know Christ hear the cry of the damned as they hurtle headlong into the Christless night without ever having a chance. May we be moved with compassion as our Lord was. May we shed tears of repentance for these we have failed to bring out of the darkness. Beyond the smiling scenes of Bethlehem, may we see the crushing agony of Golgotha. May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost - and our responsibility."Merry Christmas to all of you …