Meghan Tschanz and the July 2012 H Squad are spending this Christmas in Mozambique and Malawi. There are no decorations to admire, no gifts to open, and no family traditions to celebrate. But the thrill of hope that makes Christmas special is just as present there as it is back home.
I find myself sitting under a big, blue mosquito net in Malawi listening to various versions of “O Holy Night” on repeat. There is something about sitting underneath my mosquito net that makes me feel like a princess. The fabric that keeps the mosquitos out falls around me like a fort I would have built in childhood.When did I stop building forts? There is a childlike joy that comes in sitting in a pile of blankets and pillows as a sheet brushes against your hair.
The sheets protect innocence, imagination, laughter and simple joy. The world can be pretty exhausting, especially on the Race. Nearly everyday you are faced with poverty, with unkept little kids who don’t have parents, and with women who are beaten by their husbands. Seeing it has a way of making you feel so small. The answers to these problems don’t come easily, and sometimes it feels like you are just treading water.
Maybe that is why “O Holy Night” is my favorite song, because it sings of hope, joy, and life in the face of all that drags us down.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’til he appeared and the soul felt it’s worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
As I type those lyrics I am tearing up, because they resonate so deeply in my soul. It is the kind of stuff you’ve got to fall on your knees for. All creation is beckoning you to believe in a deep goodness that chases the dark away. It’s your soul colliding with its beautiful maker in this fallen world.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger. Behold your king.
I find myself stumbling and falling at his feet with the weight of the world, collapsing with the pain, hatred, and poverty I see. And as he reaches out his hand to touch me, it goes deeper than my skin. His hands work their way into the deepest parts of my heart.
My soul finds peace only in his. But it’s not just peace – it’s so much more than that. It’s a burgeoning joy and wonder. It’s a light that flickers at first but blossoms and grows stronger until it pushes all of the darkness out. It’s love that overcame the grave.
Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.”
It’s love that swells within us and escapes from our lips and our hands as it finds its way to our brother. His love that brings freedom as it rages against the darkness, breaking the chains that had kept us in bondage.
Let all that is within us praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord. O praise his name forever!
It’s a swell of the chorus and the world cries out to the one that brings the light. People of every tongue and color singing to the one who gives life. To the one who held their hand through the trial and who cradled them in their pain. It’s all creation crying out to one who makes all striving cease.
This love is what makes Christmas so special. During this season I find love pounding its way out of my chest and into the world around me. It truly is, for me, the most wonderful time of the year.
Maybe that’s why all around the world you find people gathering to share love, laughter, and memories. Because on a cold night, so many years ago, this world was given hope in the form of a newborn babe in a manger.
*Photos by Justin Marshall
