Yet this Christmas would be devoid of almost all of that. We were in a small village in Malawi called Likuchi. The place where we were staying did not have electricity, running water, or a toilet. Honestly, these are never things I would have classified as luxuries back home. I would never have thought someone was living the high life they had a kitchen sink. This Christmas would be devoid of all American luxuries and pretty much all American basic norms. There was no Christmas tree with presents under it. It would be a very different type of Christmas.
It was in the middle of all of this that the Lord spoke very clearly to our team about what Christmas really is. For so many of us, Christmas seems to come in a box, wrapped up in a bow with a price tag on it. It is a beautiful mosaic of fun, family, lights, and spending money. Christmas seems to be this time of the year when we spend a great deal of time thinks about spending time with our families, giving presents to them, and also looking forward to getting presents from others so that our lives may be materially enriched. Thoughts of a manger, a star in the sky, angels singing, and a Kingdom coming seem to be limited to group caroling and a candle light service. The focus of the American Christmas seems to be more about the worship of consumerism than it does Jesus.
And yet this Christmas was full of something very different. It was filled with something pure. We arrived to Likuchi on Christmas Eve and spent most of the day setting up tents, picking up food (chicken, beans, and rice), and enjoying what felt like 95 degrees of heat. There were no lights. No huge feast. Yet it was amazing. We made a few paper snowflakes that were taped to the wall. We laughed a lot, listened to a sermon by Louie Giglio on the Cost of Christmas, and worshipped the Lord. It was amazing. There were no presents exchanged. No bows to unwrap. No boxed up open up. Yet Jesus met us there.
Christmas day was filled with multiple church services, preaching, and doing an afternoon Q&A for the community about any Bible questions they might have (which some of them were crazy- Where do black people come from, where in the Garden of Eden, what kind of fruit did Adam and Eve eat, the list could go on). We continued to have a great night celebrating the Lord and Him coming into the world to bring us redemption. It was amazing.
