It’s that special time of year again! The days are hot and humid. Everyone you meet greets you with a cheery “Minglabaa!” Monks chant and beg in the streets from dawn until dusk. Loud, dissonant music blasts from faulty speakers for hours in side streets. Stages are prepared alongside them in alleyways for Buddhist speakers to give 4 hour sermons to crowds of pious practitioners striving to achieve nirvana. Yep, you guessed it! It’s Christmas time.
You probably didn’t guess that at all. All of those things probably sound foreign to the fond Christmas memories and traditions you cherish. Unless you live in Myanmar of course. That’s what Christmas looks like for my team this year. We’re staying in Yangon, Myanmar, also known as Burma, for three weeks of ministry and establishing new relationships with local people of peace to smooth the way for future teams coming into the region after us. For all that we know Christmas to be, the only constant we have now from past memories of this holy and celebrated time is the message and presence of Christ.
But we aren’t the only ones spending Christmas far away from home this year. It’s a familiar concept for members of our nation’s military and for their families. Christian refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war torn regions will also find this year’s Christmas a far cry from the ones they’ve known over the years. Some will celebrate with family. Some no longer have family with which to celebrate. For some we met in Athens, the PTSD and flashbacks of watching their families killed by ISIS will be especially hard over these next couple days. There are even people in the U.S. who are preparing for a lonely Christmas, either because of family troubles, lack of ability to travel, or simply the cards dealt to them by life this year.
Christmas, for so many people, is a sacred time of special moments with family and loved ones, often visiting from far away. It’s a time of shared love and comfort. It’s a time of traditions that bring us together over shared memories and joy in the hope we have in Christ. But for a large group of people, it’s a time of uncertainty in alien lands, devoid of familiar comforts, in which the challenges of their lives seem magnified and their lonesome state even more so.
But I have a message of hope for those who find themselves far away from the people they love and the comforts they cherish this Christmas, and for their families.
This Christmas, and every Christmas there has been or will be, Christ is near to those who are far. Jesus has a unique love for them. He came into this world in those circumstances – cold and hungry to scared parents just trying to get through the night.
That is how the very first Christmas was spent. A travel weary young couple, with a troubled start to their marriage and a scandalous reputation in their village, forced by government edict to travel days and nights to a town only once familiar, desperately seeking a safe place to stay the night and for the wife to give birth. I’m sure Joseph’s blood pressure was off the charts as he realized there was no place to stay that night. I can’t imagine the pain and stress Mary endured. And the weight of uncertainty that must have loomed over both! And then sinking so low as to stay in an animal pen – probably cold, certainly filthy, and from experience I know the smell was nauseating. Not the ideal place in which to give birth. For all the joy and comfort and peace we sing of and celebrate over this special time, I’m sure Joseph and Mary felt far removed from any of that.
But in all of that fear and doubt and hardship is the very moment when Hope came into this world and was given a name – Immanuel, God With Us.
That’s what He does – somehow, with gentleness and love greater than we can imagine, He charges into our cold, dark, and desperate nights like a soldier storming an enemy beach, just when we feel the most alone, right when things seem the worst, and He gives us a hope that conquers and brings new life.
If you are far from home, if you are afraid and uncertain and feel alone, Christ is with you and He loves you and has compassion greater than your circumstance. If you are missing a loved one this Christmas, Christ is near to you too, with special comfort for your longing. In some ways, you’ll gain greater insight into the mystery of Christ’s hope amid such troubled times.
Above all, know that you are not alone. Christ has not forgotten you. No matter how obscure your circumstance, Christ knows and loves and is with you. Have a Merry Christmas, friends. The one who authored Hope and loves the broken is with all of us this evening and forevermore.
