The "Feeling" of Christmas

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 Today is Christmas Eve. The cicidas are singing outside and the fan palm tree outside flutters in the breeze that heralds the coming rain. The center is quiet and peaceful, the normal rush and bustle stilled for the Christmas holiday as everyone takes a break and spends time with family. I glance over at our tiny Christmas tree, bravely stretching it’s two feet to hold the silly little ornaments I shipped here in November of 2014.  A tiny nativity sits under the tree reminding me of the reason for the Christmas season.

     This is my first Christmas in Papua New Guinea. Most of the month I’ve been saying to my friends how much it doesn’t “feel” like Christmas. The weather is closer to a Pacific Northwest summer and the general pace and routine of life has been going on much as usual. However, as I have been reflecting on Christmas this year I realized it does “feel” like Christmas despite the different weather, surroundings and traditions. It does because the “feel” of Christmas is the feeling that God Himself came to be with us. He stepped down to rescue us from our sin and from ourselves. As a typical American I’ve had the “feeling” of Christmas wrapped up in lights and stockings and carols and all the trappings of Christmas in the USA. Not that those things are bad, but they’re not what should “feel” like Christmas.

      The true spirit of Christmas is that tangible realization of God’s presence with us through Jesus; of His undeserved and loving choice to come and sacrifice himself for us so that we could have a whole and healed relationship with Him. So, in that spirit, Merry Christmas my dear friends, and may your heart be filled with the real “feeling” of Christmas all year long!

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