I Love Christmas!

Which is funny, because actually christmas is normally not my favorite holiday, cause it gets so stressful sometimes. It just makes me nervous and hurried all the time. But right now im really enjoying it. We have our tree up in the big, empty room between the dining room and my room. And its a really really nice tree. That was one of the saddest material things when we moved to ghana. Every year in the states we got a real tree. And it wasnt christmas until the house smelled like christmas tree. Its still one of my favorite comfort smells. Fake trees just didnt cut it. And it didnt help that when we first moved here, our tree was the size of my big toe. Ok, maybe a little bigger, but to give you a point of reference, we had to put it up on a little end table so people could see it. Now thats sad. ANYWAYS, thanks to my sweet mumsie, we have a beautiful tree this year that makes me smile every time i walk past it. its beautiful.

Yesterday we had missionary fellowship at our house. And it was so fun. Im gonna be totally honest here and say that normally i dont love missionary fellowship. more on that later, but just know that yesterday i loved it. We, as a group, chose three 'secular' christmas songs and three 'sacred' christmas songs (my dad's wording, i like it). One of the secular songs was "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" It is now officially one of my favorite christmas songs. if you havent heard it, you need to. like now. And one of our sacred songs was "O Holy Night". Now let me turn all grinchy for a second and say that i dont really like most 'sacred' christmas songs (I really do sound like scrooge. sorry). They just seem a little too nice to me. Silent Night? Away in a Manger. They make having a baby in a nasty, animal-filled cave sound romantic. Now Ive never had a baby, but from what i hear, its anything but calm and bright. And i betcha the baby Jesus cried. he was a human baby after all. But this song yesterday was so good to me. I loved it. "A thrill of hope, The weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn". Thats such a beautifully apt way to describe our world. weary.

I dont know about you, but being in the world makes me tired. Hopeless. Useless. There's so much crap happening that after awhile you stop getting mad and start getting tired. at least i do. A Thrill of Hope. How desperately do we need that? Especially at christmas when you want to puke if you see one more strand of lights, one more piece of tinsel, have to buy one more present. Shouldnt that thrill of hope be enough? Cause it got me real excited yesterday. The knowledge of what that hope could mean to the world made me a lot less tired. People talk about world peace a lot, and seem to think that if we had that, all the world's problems would be solved. But how do you have peace without hope? How do you have hope without Someone to save you, to hold you close and whisper that hope in your ear when youre just too tired to hear it? Christmas is beautiful, but not for the reason most people think. Its beautiful because a baby boy was born to a very very young girl and her scared husband in a cave, in some not-sterilized-straw, lauded by shepherds who saw the glory and praise that this baby wrapped in rags would inspire. That is beautiful because it is so very plain. Its not flashy, no tinsel, or lights, or even pretty christmas trees. Just a baby and a mama and an army of angels that some little boys out watching the sheep got to see.

That sure gives me a thrill of hope. If He could come the way He did and still do all the things He did, how can I not do and be what He's called me to?