You know you’re on the world race when your Christmas shopping consists of 30minutes at the grocery store and costs you a total of $33 for 6 people.
It’s Christmas Eve here in China and we’ve just finished our “Christmas shopping” Our gifts are neatly placed under our little tree (which we also purchased at the grocery store), at the foot of our bed in our tiny hotel room. I know what you might be thinking.
“Hotel room? Common, I though this was the world race?”
Trust me. It has not been nearly as glamorous as you might think. It reeks of cigarette smoke, the walls are dirty, the ceiling is peeling and all we have to cook with is a kettle. Let me just tell you that I will probably never eat any kind of mr. noodles again in my life. We are also cramming way more people in the room than can fit on the 2 single beds. On top of that, most of us have gotten sick this month. Fevers, coughs, and diarrhea have become the norm.
It’s also been hard for all of us not being able to contact home during this holiday season. This will be my first Christmas not only not being with my family but not even be able to say a simple Merry Christmas. I’ll most likely be able to post this blog in the new year once we have internet again, which will be the first time I get to contact home since the first week of December.
Despite the challenges we’ve faced this month God has revealed a part of Christmas to me that I’ve never thought about before.
We have left our homes for Christmas, we are away from our families and are experiencing discomfort in that but we get to celebrate Christmas in a way that we never have before because the part of Christmas we don’t look at, is that Jesus left His heavenly father to come into a broken world.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have ever-lasting life.”
Now THAT is something I can celebrate no matter where I am or who I’m with this Christmas season.
Thank you Jesus for leaving the comfort of your most deserving glorious throne to come to a broken world and bring hope to the lost. I pray that you will use us to do the same.
Amen
