Hope for Christmas

Today I will finish up Christmas thoughts and then move on to life now. I don't think I have ever spent Christmas outside of the States. I wondered how it would go.

We purposely planned the safari over Christmas. I thought maybe the girls would be distracted and not miss getting together with family as much.  I don't know if it worked or not. It did not feel like Christmas, it felt like July 22. You would never know it was Christmas, except for the few funny Christmas decorations you could buy in the stores and the Coca-Cola Santa advertisements all over town. There were no parades, no cold weather, no manger scenes, no cute beanie, gloves, scarves, and boots to wear, the list goes on. 

I didn't want to miss Jesus this year at Christmas. Jesus is omnipresent, right? So where is He in Africa? Same place He is in the States, in China, in France, in Brazil, etc.  

I was afraid because it didn't "feel" like Christmas, that we would miss it. Only Christmas is not a feeling, Christmas is a fact. Christmas is not based on feelings, it's Truth. Christmas happens whether you feel it or not. It is a truth for the whole world. 

Christmas Day arrived. We were getting ready for the morning game drive. My expectations were a little too high, not to mention that no one had slept very good that night. It was a rocky morning. I thought we had recovered by the time we got to the ferry, but nope, a very smart mouth and actions responded to me while we were crossing the Nile river. I didn't exactly handle it in with rockstar parenting skills either. I handled it about as well as giving a two-year-old the wrong color cup, at least without the tears and screaming. 

This was not the dreamy Christmas safari I had imagined. What in the world? Wasn't Christmas supposed to create the best memories and traditions for kids to remember when they grow up that gives them all the warm fuzzies? This was not the fuzzy, shiny Christmas memory I thought we would create. There were cracks in it. It was broken. 

Then I remembered, EVERYTHING is broken and didn't Jesus come to give us hope? Hope, that what is broken can be restored. Not only is what is broken restored, it's made better. It becomes a brand new creation. It is give a new start. 

So that's what we did, we started over with communicating, hugs, and smiles. 

We didn't miss Jesus at all this year. He found us in the broken places and made it all new. In a strange way, I am thankful for a little smart mouth and bad response, because it brought us to Jesus. The brokenness of Christmas makes me so thankful for the Hope of Christmas.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, 

the old has passed away, behold, the new has come!" 

2 Corinthians 5:17