This year is the first year I have been home for Christmas in the past two years!
Christmas in America versus Christmas in Africa is completely different but both amazing and special in their own ways.
In Africa you get creative with how you celebrate. Decorating with Eucalyptus leaves, wrapping gifts (usually fruit you bought at the market) in random articles such as a trash bag, your stocking consists of a sock that may or may not be clean and your Christmas movie options are limited to the ones you downloaded onto your hard-drive in August.
You sacrifice spending time with your blood relatives to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ; and you sacrifice Christmas lights for an Ethiopian sky full of stars.
And instead of a hour long candle light Christmas Eve service you get a 4 hour long spontaneous dance worship celebration starting Christmas Eve and ending Christmas morning, then just a few hours of sleep before starting again that afternoon.
I am so grateful for my past two Christmas’s in Africa. They taught me so much and are memories I will hold dear to my heart forever.
But this year I am thankful to be home!
I’ve had the opportunity to fully embrace the holiday season with family all around, endless hot chocolate and snacks, 500 options of Target wrapping paper, decorating Christmas trees, going to look at Christmas lights, and of course ALL THE HALLMARK MOVIES!
When talking about Hallmark movies you typically get one of two responses:
- Oh my goodness YES give me all the Hallmark movies. I love them all!
- Oh my goodness NO. They are all the same story over and over. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
But no matter your feelings toward them, everyone can agree on one thing…
every Hallmark movie ends the same way.
They fall in love and live happily ever after.
And as predictable and cliche as they may seem, it reflects the love of Jesus.
Yep, I am saying that our relationship with Jesus is similar to a Hallmark movie.
The movie starts with someone thinking they’ve got it all figured out with the perfect job and/or relationship.
For whatever reason they end up going to small town USA and realizing, “maybe there’s more to life than working 24/7 and climbing up the corporate ladder.”
Then in walks the love of their life who makes them question if love it worth giving up everything.
Then some dramatic event happens making you question “will they get to be together?”
BUT because every Hallmark movie ends the same way, you can rest assured that they will indeed end up together.
And then look at that, they live happily ever after.
Sure…. our relationship with Jesus may not take place in Hallmarkville with little red trucks, local christmas tree farms and ending with a kiss in the snow, but the love of Jesus is predictable. We know how the story ends!
Before we meet Jesus we may think we have it all figured out. The high paying job, the husband/wife we’ve always dreamt of, plenty of vacation time and accomplishing all our hopes and dreams.
But then after we have everything we could ever want we start thinking, “maybe there’s something more.”
So we start trying to find that something more whether drugs, alcohol, a new relationship, a new higher paying job, working towards bigger and better dreams or going on a trip to “find ourselves”.
Then we meet Jesus and He makes us start wondering if His love is worth giving up everything we have worked so hard for.
He pursues us in a way we have never experienced before.
He knows us in ways no one has ever known before.
We feel free to just be ourselves and rest in a space where the pressure is off.
And even though He is nothing we thought we were wanting/looking for, we realize He is actually EVERYTHING we have been desiring and searching for and most definitely worth giving up everything for.
And just like a Hallmark movie, in our relationship with Jesus we already know the end of the story.
It’s not something we have to worry about or be anxious about.
We don’t have to wonder if we are going to end up living happily ever after with our one true love in the midst of the messy plot twist of our lives.
Even if we don’t choose Him in that season/scene we know the story isn’t over because He continues to pursue us and WE KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS!
We get to rest in knowing that when we choose Jesus we really do get to spend the rest of our lives AND MORE with our one true love!
We love Hallmark movies because there is something inside of us that craves the predictability of a happily-ever-after!
THAT’S JESUS YALL!
This holiday season fall in love with Jesus, rest in knowing the end of the story and start enjoying your happily-ever-after!
Merry Christmas y’all!
