This holiday season we were abundantly blessed to be able to host 2 separate celebrations in our town and we saw nearly 100 people come to celebrate with us! One neighbor who offered to direct the work of making sure that a giant meal was cooked for lunch said, “If this is a day of joy for you, it’s a day of joy for us.” We were humbled and blessed to see many of our neighbors and friends take responsibility for parts of the celebration, without ever being asked to do it. Because of their taking the lead in so many ways, the gatherings felt very culturally appropriate and seemed to be well understood by everyone who came. And yet so many who came through the door said, “Happy Christmas!” It was humbling to see their extravagant demonstration of loving us, their neighbors. And it was a joy to see them experience celebrating the birth of Christ in a way that made sense to them. One dear friend said, “We never celebrated this before you came here,” with the biggest smile. Please pray that our people would continue to reflect on the day, to be challenged by the fact that it broke stereotypes about how Christians typically celebrate, and that many would be stirred to seek more information about the One whose birth was celebrated that day.
