Christmas Reflections

Last week we decorated our house with some of our Christmas stuff. I had gone to Bangkok on Monday for another doctor’s appointment and stopped at our team’s office for a few items. I picked up the essentials…our stockings and Christmas ornaments and I intended on bringing my nativity scene but lost my brain and left it there! SO, on Tuesday, Paul went to Big C (the local grocery store somewhat like Wal-Mart but of course not the same!) and bought a 3 foot artificial Christmas tree. To be honest, I was surprised they were even selling them here in Lopburi.
Oh, I also brought back a couple Christmas cds. So, Tuesday we put on the music and began decorating the tree and hanging the stockings. Of course it didn’t take a long time to do all this! But, it was so fun to watch PJ and the wonder he had (and still has) when we turned the tree lights on and turned out the lights.
We finished up our last week of language school for the 2005 year. We will begin again on January 4th. Our plans to celebrate are quite different from years past. Usually, like most of you reading this, we are home with one of our families celebrating this joyous time but this year, God has called us to celebrate here far away from the commercialism of an American Christmas. Sure, I miss family and friends but I don’t miss the huge commercial push that you have in America. Although, the reality is that so few people know the real meaning of Christmas here that they don’t celebrate AT ALL, which of course is the whole reason we are HERE! So, anyway, our plans include baking cookies (yummy!) this week and going to Bangkok on Thursday to spend the day with our teammates and Thai staff. We will be enjoying a Christmas breakfast together and a time of gift giving. Then on Friday we will be celebrating a meal here in Lopburi with our Dutch neighbors (this is also the day we will open our gifts from each other). Then on Christmas Eve at 8AM we will be meeting our church for the thiaw I mentioned in an earlier post. We will be with them until Christmas Day and we can only assume we will get back rather later in the day. We are really looking forward to the week ahead and though I am sure there will be some hard times in the week, we are learning on a deeper level what Immanuel (God with us) means. Just last night I was rocking in my rocking chair (Paul gave me a rocker for my birthday on December 2nd) and I was listening to some beautiful Christmas music and had the Christmas lights on and I began crying. Of course, we miss our families and friends during this time…I don’t think we would be human if we didn’t, but God is giving us the grace to persevere and trust and serve Him above ourselves and what we would selfishly desire. I couldn’t help but reflect last night on the great sacrifice Christ made to come to earth as a helpless little babe and to leave the splendor and perfection of Heaven to come to earth…and let’s face it even 2000 years ago earth was no where near the perfection of Heaven. I also read the Christmas account found in Luke 1-2. How thankful I am for the Word of God to sustain us through these times and how thankful I am that even though we are on the other side of the world, we can still celebrate Christmas and perhaps we will come out of Christmas ’05 with a much deeper understanding of what it meant for Christ to leave His heavenly Father and home to come to a people who would not understand Him out of obedience to His Father and love for those people (US!!!!). Reflecting on that great sacrifice brings great comfort and peace as we enter this season. Please continue to pray for us during the next two weeks that we would truly reflect on Christ and His coming and His second coming and that we would be thankful for His bringing us here to be used of Him in whatever way He sees fit.