Non-Standard Christmas

becky    Uncategorized    

In 13 days we will celebrate our first Christmas outside of the US.  We will not have any chance of snow nor will anyone else in probably a 1,500 mile radius.  We won’t have coordinating Christmas suits or matching jammies for the boys (nor would we want to inflict long pants/sleeves on them in this weather-Samuel asked for footie jammies the other day and we had to explain that they were unnecessary).  We can’t get peppermint flavored anything or a ham like we often have for Christmas dinner.  I haven’t been able to find some baking ingredients, so my tradition of making fudge for co-workers, friends, family, etc. and possibly making much of anything else just won’t be happening this year.  While ornaments are available along with trees and some other things, we haven’t been able to find the kind of ornaments we have purchased in the past as part of our family tradition.  When listening to “Silent Night” the other day I realized we won’t be going to our church in Murfreesboro for the candlelight Christmas Eve service and we haven’t seen a church here yet that does one.  I’ve gone to many candlelight Christmas Eve services in my life and will greatly miss this tradition.  We won’t be seeing our families on/around Christmas like we always have in years past with the exception of some time on Skype.  Many of our traditions are non-existent simply because of our location.

We do still have a tree and we brought some number of our ornaments with us to decorate. We still have Christmas music to listen to (though “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” gets skipped). And we have a kid-friendly nativity set to display.  Benjamin has been very concerned about whether Jesus needs a fresh diaper and Samuel asked if Mary had toes when examining her as we put it up.  No,  Jesus doesn’t need a diaper change and yes, Mary has toes.  So much of getting into the spirit of Christmas has to do with what’s around us that it’s honestly been harder to do it this year.  We haven’t found a church yet, so we’re not even connected to a local body of believers to share this time of the year with.  It’s hard and it’s weird.  It’s made us think/talk a lot more about what Christmas means. And it’s made me think about what it was like the night Christ was born.

Mary and Joseph were in a barn.  They had no comforts of home or even creature comforts of the day. Scripture doesn’t say if anyone else was at Jesus’ birth with them helping Mary through labor, delivery, and helping care for her and Jesus after He was born.  Even if there were people she didn’t know them.  They had no big meal, tasty treats, or fancy drinks.  They weren’t decked out in their finest clothes purchased just for the occasion.  They weren’t concerned with whether or not the twinkle lights were twinkling properly or the stockings stuffed just right.  They were probably mostly in survival mode-overwhelmed, exhausted, just trying to get from one moment to the next.

I can somewhat identify with that kind of Christmas-no family, very few people around who we know or are known by, some number of the creature comforts we’re used to gone, and being in survival mode-that’s more like our lives right now. And that’s okay.  The reason we live this life is so that people can know about Jesus-his birth, life, death, and resurrection-and they can celebrate Christmas with joy not because of presents and peppermint lattes, but because He came to save the world.

Ironically some number of stores here actually have “Merry Christmas” signs up (they also display signs for holidays from other belief systems-they just don’t coincide with Christmas here) and those who play Christmas music are playing mostly Christmas carols/hymns.  Some carolers were even singing at Ikea the other day when we were there.  All of this in a country where at most 10% of the population believes in Christ and His birth.  While it’s strange, it’s also amazing and my prayer this Christmas as I’ve been out and about is that God will embed the words of those songs in the hearts of those who don’t believe in Him and that He will use something that simple to turn hearts to Him.  We honestly miss many of the things we liked about this season as we celebrated and anticipated Christmas, but I can’t be upset about the opportunity to pray over very lost people in a dark place who desperately need the love of Christ.