coming christmas

Christmas is coming! And, even though I am not around as many practicing Christian friends, the Christmas season has a much more authentic feel to me this year. There are a few decorations around town and colored lights went up in our suite yesterday (and I thought the colorful road flags were rather Christmasy, too), but we don’t experience the panicked hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and obsessive decorating. So, if anything comes close to the insanity of Christmas shopping it was a couple weeks ago when the line at the store was 5 deep and people packed up their gifts to send home before the mail deadline at the post office. Instead, we make do with what we have and look forward to our station Christmas dinner at which we will see such delicacies as duck and lobster!

Yesterday I saw the perfect 6 pointed snowflake land on the front window of the Terra Bus. It stayed for over a minute, frozen in it's glittery state until it blew off. I wish I had my camera to capture the amazing beauty of that ice; so small, but it is now just a sweetened memory (instead, I'll just attach one of the pictures from the pressure ridge tour I took last week). Given our inevitable white Christmas, what do we dream of down here? Well:

I remember the Christmas’ past when the extended family would get together in one house for three days and talk, play games, eat, and eat, and eat some more. Those Christmas' were simpler in my understanding of the place we live. Peace stood a chance because I didn’t understand the complications of war; or how entangled human civilization can become.

I have hopes for Christmas’ to come of our Prince of Peace to come again and make everything new. I hope for peace and a world without sin. I dream of the day when life is not so complicated and the right decisions are made for me. I hope for a Christmas with family again; when we can crowd in a room and thank God for His Son together; and then celebrate our gratitude for our food and company. After all that, I suppose I would hope for something other than pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert.

I anticipate a Christmas this year with new friends and with Laura, flying in from the South Pole. I will have a grand meal to indulge in with a glass of wine and plentiful conversation. I know I'll get my "something other than pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert." And, I'll have the memories to keep near of family and friends back home who will celebrate their holiday in similar fashion.

I know one thing remains the same from Christmas to Christmas: The reason we can celebrate and share the joy of this holiday is because God’s Son was sent to us to make the world new and to prepare a way for us to meet Him when he returns.

“I’m here with the others who saw the heavens testify. Now I hang back in the shadows, I want to come close. I want to know. She sees me shivering here, she smiles and with a nod, I walk through the mud and straw to the newborn Son of God. He raises a wrinkled hand through the dust and the flies. Wrapped in rags like we are and with barely open eyes, he takes my finger and He won’t let go and He won’t let go! It’s nothing like I knew before and it’s all I need to know. Come, let us adore Him, He has come down to this barren land where we live and all I have to give Him is adoration." - Newsboys, Adoration -

For myself, this lack of a commercial Christmas makes it a little easier to live the prayer we said on Sunday: "Lord in heaven, save us from mere external religion. Forive us for the times we have forsaken You, hidden our sin, and sought to help and hope in ourselves and things of this world. Heal our hearts and make us into the people You want us to be."

Happy Holidays everyone!