Home For Christmas

There I was, brushing my teeth, listening to a particularly swingin’ version of Go Tell it On the Mountain, when it hit me.

I’ve been duped!

Despite what all the classic Christmas tunes and TV specials have been telling me all these years, Christmas is not about being warm and cozy in the place you call home! It seems like the epitome of a successful Christmas is whether or not you make it home with all your family, with some eggnog and a piece of [insert favourite Christmas baked good here]. We even say that exchanging gifts isn’t important, as long as we’re at home with the people we love.

And before I’m accused of being a scrooge, allow me to say that I think that family and home is very good and terribly important (and more important than exchanging presents indeed!). I think that making an effort to be with those you love in the place you call home is a most marvelous way to spend Christmas. However, what I’m saying is, that’s not “what Christmas is all about.”

It occurred to me that morning as I brushed my teeth that we celebrate Christmas exactly because of the opposite reason. We have what we call Christmas because of the fact that someone left their home. Jesus left his home and his Father in heaven for what must have been an extremely dis-pleasant alternative. As I was expressing this to my husband, he pointed out that beyond that, Mary and Joseph spent what we know as the very first Christmas leaving their home too. If we think about it, Christmas happened because of people leaving home.

Another thought brings me to question this notion of “being home for Christmas” as the ultimate goal of a Christmas celebration. Lately I’ve been struggling with what the kids at R&W call home. I can’t begin to comprehend some of the situations these children go ‘home’ to. Drugs, abuse, hunger, neglect… sometimes it makes my insides ache to watch our little ones walk away from the daycare at the end of the day. What would it mean to them to hear that Christmas is all about being home with family? Not much.

I won’t be ‘home for Christmas’ this year, in the traditional, familial sense of the phrase. It will be my first Christmas where I will not get to at least visit my parents and brothers. And I don’t doubt that it will be a little difficult for me at times. But I find peace and joy in the beautiful home I have here with my fantastic husband. I also find peace knowing that the reason I do celebrate Christmas is because of God incarnate leaving his home.

If you are blessed to be able to spend Christmas in a safe home with friends or family, thank God with a very grateful heart. I rejoice with you. But I also ask you to also remember those for whom being ‘home for Christmas’ might be more painful than not. I ask you to pray for them, specifically for our children here in Mazatlan. As difficult as it is, we can only do so much, and the rest we must hand over. Pray that this Christmas, peace would penetrate their homes. Please pray that this Christmas, home would be a safe place for them. Most of all, pray that Immanuel will make his presence known in the broken homes of these families, as he did when he left his home on that Christmas so long ago. 

The Nativity scene we got to make with the older boys at R&W