Merry Christmas!

   Merry Christmas! It is a very warm day. Sweat trickles down my face as I type. Is this Christmas? 

  We were very blessed to celebrate Christmas with our friends and family in the US while we were on furlough. But in the business of everything it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. I hadn't realized how much it was affecting me until this morning. It is Christmas eve day. A day I always look forward to and prepare for. But this year the travelling and many other circumstances have kept me so busy I haven't had time to prepare and anticipate. I do plan to keep our tradition of a special supper this evening for our family. Our luggage hasn't arrived so there will be no Christmas gifts tonight but we pray our things will get here eventually.

  Tomorrow all the missionaries are getting together for brunch and a small Christmas service. Then we will spend the rest of the day at the beach and eat supper there. 

  Some day you will hear more details of our return trip to Ghana. Of our great blessings and our disappointments and trials. But today as I think about Christmas, I am trying to overcome the disappointments of our luggage not coming with us so we can have a Christmas with the trimmings and I am trying to focus on the spirit of that first Christmas. 

   Mary and Joseph had just been on a long journey. They were in an area that wasn't their home town. Everything was strange and they had to search for a place to stay. There were no decorations. There were no fancy meals. And the gifts did come but not until weeks or months later.

  But there was a miraculous birth. There was an angel chorus. There were shepherds kneeling to worship. And as the Son of God took His first breath on earth, I am sure God was very near.

  This Christmas we have just been on a journey. We are once again in our "home" away from home. Things are so familiar and yet so strange. We are actually making a few simple decorations to make our house look a little like Christmas even if we sweat while we do it. We won't have fancy meals but there will be food. And just maybe our gifts will arrive today!

  But we experienced a wonderful miracle last week. Our group of 17 (except the ones under 5) had to be tested twice for Covid. And in spite of us being fairly certain we had it in the 6 weeks before and being exposed, every one of our group tested negative. Twice!

  I don't plan to hear an angel chorus but we will certainly form our own chorus and sing Christmas songs tomorrow. I highly doubt it will be anywhere near angelic but you never can tell!

  And we will certainly worship, as the shepherds did many years ago

  And even in Ghana, thousands of miles from our friends and family, our church, our home town; I know God is very near!

  Christmas looks and feels different this year, even compared to last year, but maybe God is teaching me in a new way that I don't need the gifts and trimmings (as much as I love them). I just need to remember that God is near!

It's not just about the manger Where the baby lay It's not all about the angels Who sang for him that day It's not just about the shepherds Or the bright and shining star It's not all about the wisemen Who travelled from afar Chorus: It's about the cross It's about my sin It's about how Jesus came to be born once So that we could be born again It's about the stone That was rolled away So that you and I could have real life someday It's about the cross The beginning of the story is wonderful and great But it's the ending that can save you and that's why we celebrate

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