Wednesday, December 21, 2011 (Christmas This Year)

As fall rides off in the sunset

I sweep the snow from my doorstep

I just can't help but stop and grin

It's like I'm ten years old again

And everywhere I go I can feel it

Some say it moves like a spirit

It falls on us once a year

Like it came on a midnight clear

It's all love

The season is a gift

When love came down to let us live

Let's open up and let our hearts embrace this moment

                                                                                                                         ~ Christmas This Year, by TobyMac

     Today's the first day of winter back home... the first day of summer in Johannesburg.  While I love this song by TobyMac, it just isn't quite true.  Instead of snow (or Washington Style Rain) covering the doorstep, we have sunshine, warm temperatures, and thunderstorms.  It's interesting how we stereotype Christmas to include twinkling lights and evergreen trees, snow and cold weather, short days and long nights, hot cocoa and cookies, etc.  Yet here, in South Africa, there aren't evergreen trees, the weather is hot, the days are long, and almost NO one puts up lights.  Come to think of it, Jesus wasn't welcomed into a snow covered world either.  I'm pretty sure his weather was much hotter than how we northerners think of Christmas being now.  

     Our church is about the only one I've seen with lights up around here.  And that may be because there are a lot of Americans in the church.  Perhaps more people would put up lights... if they stayed in town.  Johannesburg has emptied quickly, meaning less traffic.  Somehow, though, that doesn't mean less crowded malls.  

   We were in the Drakensberg until the 16th, so our tree wasn't put up until the 17th, but our ornaments are not toddler-proof.  Only the non-breakable ornaments went on the tree, and we planned on hanging the breakable ornaments on garlands strung around the room.  That was the plan - until we discovered we left the garlands at home and brought lots of extra wreaths instead.  So now the breakable ornaments are hanging from wreaths hanging in our window.  Esther thinks our home looks even more Christmas-y than it did in America.  Perhaps that's because we only focused on the main room, decorating no where else, and brought enough decorations (although not everything we own) that we don't have enough room to put everything someplace in our smaller home.  

     At home, the youngers would always sleep under the Christmas tree in the playroom, but that's now our main tree, and it's in our main room, which we can't sleep in because it isn't behind security gates.  On Christmas Eve, Chapel Hill has five evening services: 4, 5:30, 7, 8:30, and 10, which all of us participated in.  But no one here does Christmas Eve services (except the Anglican church Mom played handbells at), so our Christmas Eve's won't be nearly as busy.  Christmas Day will be quiet as well, with a church service in the morning and a couple of families over for dinner.   

     Even with all of the differences between a Washingtonian Christmas and a South African Christmas, the real meaning is the same.  One night, a couple thousand years ago, the Son of God, Jesus, Emmanuel was born to the virgin, Mary in the little town of Bethlehem.  Shepherds and Kings alike bowed down to the newborn baby, and angels sang their praises over the small stable.  30-odd years later, Jesus was crucified, a perfect man, the Son of God, for the sins of all of us.  None of us can ever be perfect, but His grace covers us.  He is the bridge that spans the wide gap between humanity and our loving Father in Heaven.  Without Jesus, the world would be a dark and forsaken place, but with Him we have hope.