January 6, 2014
Christmas in Africa is pretty similar to Christmas anywhere else in the world I would suspect. But ONE thing makes it really special and memorable for me.
THE PEOPLE.
Christmas in South Africa is all about family and community. The day is packed with visits, and greetings, and presents, and eating, and gathering. You see all the people you love and spend time together.
The longer we live here the more special Christmas becomes to me here.
Christmas day is hectic and honestly a blur to us, but something I cherish. In Africa it’s very important for people to ‘greet’ one another by coming to visit, and so our home was filled for much of the day, and then we went to another family gathering with a home also filled to the brim.
Being in all these homes with people filled to the brim fills my HEART to the brim. Our Christmas-time here reminds me that God has blessed us with an incredible community.
We share life, food, family, and Jesus. It is rich and it is hard and it is SO GOOD.
Thank you Jesus for sending us your SON in the form of a small, vulnerable child.
Thank you for allowing us to celebrate that perfect and tiny gift. Thank you for coming to us, and thank you that we can come to one another.
Thank you Jesus that you have come among us once again.