“Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh…”
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…”
“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…”
You get the picture. Christmas, snow, and cold pushed up against the warmth and comfort of friends and family and holiday cheer. Well, as I look out my window today, I see green palm trees in 79-degree weather on this 24th of December in Uganda. What we lack in snow, we more than make up for in dust and dirt. It’s a stretch to convince myself that it is Christmas, not summertime.
Away from my family this Christmas, I’ll admit I’ve not really been in the Christmas mood. Today, however, like a collage coming together, I’ve been reflecting on some extraordinarily unordinary moments that have happened recently…and have been convicted (again) about what Christmas should really mean.
Yesterday, I got “real” mail, a handwritten Christmas card…from someone in the US, a stranger, who told me I was in her prayers and sent me vegetarian recipes.
At the beginning of this week I took 4 of our Hope Alive! kids to an eye clinic. A friend of mine researched for me and introduced me to a foundation that sponsors eye care programs for the disadvantaged around the world …A Ugandan doctor linked to that organization and working at a local hospital made it possible for our children to be seen free of charge, now and in the future. Three of those kids needed and got glasses that will allow them to finally be able to read the blackboard at school. Another dear friend of mine from home sponsors one of the girls, making it possible for us to buy her the glasses that will make reading and studying so much easier now.
Earlier this month, as I was drowning in pages and pages of medical records from our 500 Hope Alive! kids, someone generously donated money for an iPad to be purchased for Hope Alive! to store its medical documents. Through more miraculous networks, a medical company has also donated their iPad application to make my job of keeping track of the medical details of 500 kids much much easier.
I got an email this last week telling me that a group of old church friends wanted to give me a collective gift…because they love me.
Today, I went with a group of my Ugandan friends to a home for about 150 street children. We did a skit of the Christmas story, gave out clothes, candy, and biscuits, and listened to their stories. The thing that made my heart ache about these kids is not they are orphans, but that they have all been left, abandoned, or not cared for enough to be found when they went missing. Many are sick or mentally handicapped, but most are normal and bright children who have families somewhere.
In all these stories I see a beautiful thread running throughout…giving…and with it, Love. Whether the gift involved time, money, friendship, something tangible, or not, each one was valuable and precious.
Today is Christmas Eve, the day that is on the edge of the greatest gift known to mankind…
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given...”
Isaiah 9:6
Those words have been echoing around in my head today after visiting those street kids. Given.
One dictionary definition describes it as, “to freely devote, set aside, or sacrifice for a purpose.”
Christmas…that GOD would become man, homeless at His birth, servant during His life…freely, out of His love and purpose for me.
Such juxtaposition. Street kids given up as lost or unloved. GOD, given to us, to find us out of the lost-ness of our sin.
“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
So, Merry Christmas from Uganda and may the Peace of Immanuel, God with us, reign in your hearts.
