Thursday, December 29, 2005

Silent night...

I enjoy Gayle Erwin's comments about Christmas. In his video series on The Jesus Style, he tells about his love for Christmas carols. However, he says, there's just something that's not quite right.

Imagine Bethlehem, he says. The city is filled with people inconvenienced by the miserable Roman census. The bars and the pubs are overflowing and the zealots are out full force - raging against the Romans. More people are arriving every moment, turning this house of bread into a teeming mass of humanity. Then suddenly-- Silent night. Holy night. -- A hush falls over the town. -- All is calm. All is bright. -- The zealots cease to rage and.... anyway, you get the picture.

I celebrated the birth of Christ with my family this year. My older sister flew in from VA and the rest of the family drove down from KS to gather at my house. My interns are all home for Christmas with their families, so we had plenty of room for my whole family to stay. We carolled people from my church; attended both Christmas Eve and Christmas services; played Boggle, Clue, and Balderdash; took long walks to look at Christmas lights; threw frisbee in the 75+ deg. weather at the nearby nature preserve; and tackled my brother several times and tickled him good.

It is such a blessing to have family to worship the Lord with. They are back in KS now. I'll head up this weekend to see them once again and drive my sisters back down here to catch their flights out.

But somehow, almost any time I think of Christmas, I think of the tens of thousands of believers who are celebrating Christmas for the first time in Asia. I think of the teams of students from the Bible colleges who go carolling in the villages door to door to tell people about the true meaning of Christmas. I think of the students at the Bible colleges who can't go home for Christmas because their families have threatened to kill them.

And I think of you. Your prayers are a vital to each part of this ministry. Thank you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Praise God for family. Praise God for his plane of redemption. Praise God for freedom to rejoice in his love and redemption. Praise God for victory over sin. Praise God salvation. Praise God for his love expressed through his son. Praise God for friends... IT COULD GO ON!!!!