After a month of a Wi-Fi fast at our house here in Chile I’m back on Facebook, and reading emails, and googling The Great Gatsby quotes a little bit more frequently. Inevitably this leads to consuming a few more ads than I’d really like to. I find that the ads draw me back to the reality of what is happening in the U.S. right now: Constant Christmas music, huge ads, sale prices- the hype of Christmas. Its consumerism at its finest.
Don’t get me wrong, Christmas time in the States is my favorite thing there is. If I could, I would live in that magical time of year of snowflakes, decorated houses, shiny ornaments, and Christmas music everywhere. In my book, it really is “the most wonderful time of the year.”
Here in our little piece of Chile, there has still been an intense hustle and bustle surrounding Christmas but it isn’t a rush to gifts, it’s been a rush to build a stable, well, and fence for live sheep, it’s piling and re-piling firewood, memorizing lines in Spanish, and finding costumes for Roman soldiers, a Rabbi, a perfume lady, Mary, Joseph, angels, and various others.
This year I don’t get to buy presents and make cookies for everyone I love, rather I get to be a woman getting water from a well with 2 small lines in a walk-through Bethlehem, 2 weeks before the holiday.
Even though that was last weekend and now I’m not sure what the holiday will look like away from home this year, I’m still so thankful. I can’t say that I don’t want to be at home with my family celebrating as I always have. But I am thankful for right where I am. Because this year, there is less to distract. There is more perspective on what Christmas is. Sure, it’s possible to have perspective and to remain focused on the real reason for Christmas back at home; but here, God is giving me a bit of a head start.
So in these next few weeks, in the moments when being away from home seems to be too hard, I will turn it into thankfulness for all the Lord is giving me. For He is giving me the gift of simplicity in a season I’ve never known to be anything but hectic.
The gospel is so beautiful because of the pure simplicity of it.
The simplicity of this Christmas season in Chile not only puts me in awe of Christmas itself, but of the gospel as a whole.
