Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Coming to Africa was a frightening experience for me.  How terrifying to leave behind the comfort, safety, and security of home.  On Christmas day we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  How much more terrifying was it for him, the God of Heaven and Earth, to be become a weak human being, to place himself among us and be born into our violent and troubled world? 

Every year we send out Christmas cards with beautiful depictions of the Nativity scene.  While they paint a nice picture, they are certainly romanticized... would any of us really want to put our newborn infant to sleep in a dirty animal feeding trough?  I can’t help but imagine Bethlehem 2,000 years ago being somewhat similar to Mutomo.  It was certainly not the center of the modern world, but rather a small town in an obscure corner of the world.  It was probably dirty and smelled like animals.  The people were probably poor and uneducated.  And yet the son of God chose to be born here in this humble setting.  In all the trials, sorrows, sufferings, and pains that are part of being human, we can know that he also shared in them.  What a wonderful show of solidarity. 

Jesus is often called Emmanuel, which means God is with us.  And so despite the temptation I may have to feel sad at being away from home this season, despite the temptation to sometimes feel hopelessness in the dire conditions here, I am still filled with great joy this Christmas season, for God is with us.  No matter where in the world we are, God is with us all, and that gives me hope.

Okay, enough philosophizing for one night.

I’ve just recently finished reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a tradition I’ve kept the last several years.  And so I’ll finish by quoting Tiny Tim’s famous closing line: “God bless Us, Every One!”

Donkeys are more violent than I realized.  We had a patient last week admitted with a fracture of the right humerus and a wound to the left leg after being attacked by her donkey… did Mary and Joseph have to deal with such things on the way to Bethlehem?

Here's a video of Christmas Eve Mass... which was all in Kiswahili.