A Little Detour on our way to Christmas

I think one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is what Zechariah prophesies over John.  It talks about John preparing the way for the "sunrise from on high" who is coming to save His people who sit in shadows and darkness.  I just love that.  I love reading Luke as well as Matthew--I think I just love the little bits about Zechariah and Simeon and Anna.  What awesome people with faith and patience.

And their stories just resonate with us.  Patience to see the Saviour come.  Faith that He is coming.  We work among a people that are notoriously hard to the Good News.  But He does promise that they will believe.  And we are thankful that we get to meet them and love them and tell them the stories.  What a gift in and of itself.

For some reason, when I've read the parts of the Word that have to do with the birth of Jesus, I've never really noticed the parts about the difficulty surrounding His birth.  There were so many wondrous things that happened, and I love those parts.  But there were some horrible things and some very difficult circumstances that happened right as He was born that I've overlooked.  But for some reason, that fact has brought me comfort this year.  As we have discomfort or hard moments, I want to remember that He went through much worse.  He can relate.  He is the one who can best relate.

Our Christmas season has looked different this year.  We spent over half the advent season in a tropical country without our stuff that we have.  So we've done little activity to celebrate advent besides reading the story of His birth.  Several times.  But I'm so thankful that He came.  I'm so thankful that He is still coming to us AND to people who haven't heard His name.  I'm so thankful for HIM.

Here are some pictures of the beginning of the month: