It’s beginning to look a lot like… a toasty summer day here in Thailand. As droplets of sweat roll off my kneecaps and the call to prayer booms over the speakers from the mosque next door, it’s hard to believe that I’ve never felt more in the Christmas spirit as I have this month.
Last month we were in the Philippines, and from the second I stepped onto the Philippino Airlines plane (in late October) until I left the country, I was inundated with Christmas music, Christmas trees, and Christmas shopping deals. I felt a wave of relief wash over me with each carol playing in the mall because it was accompanied with the thought, “If Asia decorates and celebrates Christmas like America, I won’t have to miss the holiday season, and I sure as heck won’t be nearly as homesick!”
And then the process of the world race that has become my norm repeated itself: we packed up all of our belongings and took several long travel days to begin month four of the race (December) in a new country: Thailand.
Thailand’s population is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, and 1% Christian, so you can probably imagine how Thai’s celebrate Christmas… they don’t. At the beginning of this month, I was devastated that I was spending the month of December in a country where all most people know about Christmas (if they know anything at all) is that it’s a foreigner’s holiday celebrated with snowmen, Santa Claus, and presents.
As I traveled from town to town and noticed that the closest thing to Christmas trees here are palm trees, the only lights twinkling at night are those of the few street lamps, and the only time I stop sweating is when I stand in the freezer aisle of the grocery store, I instantly started to miss “Christmas.”
I was jealous of the pictures posted of new boots and longed to rock the ugliest Christmas sweater, curl up with cocoa by the fire with my French bulldog, and Pinterest cute, creative ways to wrap all of my presents.
And then like a coconut falling out of one of the trees onto my head (which happens here!), God suddenly knocked some sense into me. Where does my excitement from the holiday season come from? Before the race, I thought I had the “reason for the season” in check. But this month has forced me to realize that when the gift giving, the traditions, and my family were removed from the holiday season, my excitement went along with it.
So I decided to truly make this month about God’s unexplainably abundant love for us. For the first time in my life, I followed an advent reading plan in the bible and spent my days talking to God and growing deeper in my relationship with Him. The realization of the gift He gave us sinks in more with each passing day of advent, and I feel a new brand of excitement as Christmas inches closer; it’s not the thrill of Christmas shopping or baking cookies but instead is the realization that my heart’s desire to feel loved exists because I was created by a God who loves me so much that He sent his son to Earth in the form of man to one day die as a perfect sacrifice for my sins.
After I started feeling anxious for Christmas in it’s truest form, I was able to see how abundantly God has blessed me with the ministry I am in this month. I went Christmas caroling and sang the gospel to families while standing next to Buddhist statues on the front porch, and all of the families greeted us with smiles, danced along to our songs, and offered us food and drinks from their house. I was able to visit two elementary schools, one 100% Buddhist and the other 100% Muslim, and put on English workshops explaining the story of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas in the form of games, stories, songs, and crafts. How can I compare my Christmas celebrations this month to inflatable reindeer in my front yard of years passed and feel the slightest ping of yearning?
When Christmas light competitions, color-coordinated trees, catchy carols, and maxed out credit cards are taken out of the equation, I was able to understand the true meaning of God’s gift to me in a personal way. God loves us so much that if you and me were the only people on Earth, He still would have given us the gift of Jesus. I have learned that Christmas is simply about remembering this immense, all-powerful love and doing our best to celebrate it by loving each other in return.
Merry Christmas!
