Merry Christmas from Cambodia! So yes, the last time I blogged was over a month ago, on Thanksgiving… so at this rate I will post another one on New Year’s Day! 😉 This month has been completely amazing in regards to our ministry here, what God is teaching me, and just about everything else. Despite the fact that I do not get to celebrate Christmas with my family, this month has been wonderful. I know back home I always heard (around this time of the year), “Jesus is the Reason for the season.” And while I completely agree with the statement, I don’t think I understood the implications until recently.
You see; when something or someone is your main focus or intent nothing else matters. Now while I’ve always firmly believed that Jesus was the most important thing about my Christmas every year, I’ve never actually been tested on that. Until this year, I’ve never been at a place where I’ve had nothing else but Him. But when everything else is stripped away, and all you are left with is Jesus, then you can honestly answer the question: “is He enough?”
This year I was able to encounter a little more of what abandonment means as I spend Christmas Day on the opposite side of the world from my family. There are no gifts under the tree, no loving embraces of favorite relatives, no Christmas ham, and to top it all off it is 85 degrees where I am, in Cambodia. So needless to say, none of the comforts of home are mine this holiday season. Which leaves me to wonder… what is left?
With everything else removed, all I have this year is the personal significance of the reason for Christmas, Jesus coming to earth. Yet somehow I am lacking nothing. Jesus Christ is the only reason I need to be joyful this year, He is the ONLY reason I need to celebrate this day… Jesus is the ONLY REASON for anything I do. So this Christmas I am reminded of what this whole Christmas season is about. I hate to break it to you, but it has nothing to do with flashy lights, lots of presents, and too much food. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those things… I own a Christmas light business back home for goodness sake. But none of the things that I normally enjoy during this season are worthy enough to be the entire reason for celebrating.
So here in Cambodia, on Christmas Day, I am more than excited to celebrate the birth of my Savior while living out the life that He has prepared for me. I love and miss my family, and can’t wait to see them next year… but I can honestly say that I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else right now. Because I know that MY reason for this season has never left me or forsaken me and no matter what I am lacking in circumstance, I have everything I need in Jesus. It sounds cliché, but this year I’ve been able to experience the truth of it.
I don’t know where you find yourself this Christmas, but no matter if you are home or away, with family or without, comfortable or miserable… you have everything you need to celebrate this season. Jesus is worthy of being celebrated in every situation. His extravagant love was manifest through the birth of His only Son and we celebrate that first coming on Christmas Day. Oh what a glorious day that second coming will be!! That is what we are living for, that is why this Christmas is worth it! To shed light on the first coming of His love to prepare the way for the Love Himself to return for His bride.
This is the reason for the season. This is what Christmas is about… the Father’s Love being sent to earth. That is something that I will never be separated from, this Day or any day.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Merry Christmas to all!
In Jesus Name,
Tanner
