It’s Beginning to Look Somewhat Like Christmas

A familiar scent wafts from the “Tropical Pine” candle, glowing brightly from the center of our dining table. I was ecstatic when I found it in a local craft shop a few years ago. It holds the memories and mingling of Christmases in different countries — the wind chill and thick blanket of snow from growing up on the prairies of Canada, helping my husband’s family Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania, and sipping iced hot chocolate in the dry season heat as we decorate our Christmas tree here in Northern Uganda.

It’s the middle of the afternoon, and the 88-degree heat has my head spinning as I remove the yellow lid from its black bin. The slightly peeling masking tape labeled “Christmas” is nestled under a thick covering of dust and cobwebs, a well-known mark of the expat life.

I begin to remove these festive contents from their quiet hideaway. Memory after memory comes flooding back. My hands reach for the red and green rag banners, a beaded tree, a nativity set (or two), a burlap banner declaring “Merry Christmas,” various Hobby Lobby holiday items, and our box of treasured, mismatched, and handmade ornaments.

Dust dances in the warm rays of sunlight pouring through the kitchen window. It’s almost the beginning of December, and there will obviously be no snow around here. There are no lights strung along rooftops or inflatable snowmen waving “hello” in front yards. There is no Santa to visit at the mall (there is no mall).

There is no basket of warm hats and mittens kept by the front door. There are no festive decorations attached to streetlights lining cute small-town streets. There are no chocolate calendars to open. There is no need or desire for an ugly Christmas sweater competition.

Yet, it’s beginning to look somewhat like Christmas.

This will be our sixth Christmas spent in Northern Uganda and our fifth celebrated in the village of Koch Goma. Surrounded by its wild grasses, goats, and gardens waiting to be burned, we have learned to adopt new traditions as we’ve released a few of the old. We have found new ways to celebrate the transition into the Christmas season as we shift our hearts and minds to the joy found in Christ rather than all the things that used to make us feel at home for the holidays.

As I reflect a little more, I realize it’s beginning to look more like Christmas than I’ve ever felt before. The longing, the waiting, the prayers and lamenting as we’ve pursued a lengthy adoption process over these past five years which has yet to finalize. The desire to spend Christmas with family across the world. All of it, wrapped up and tied together like a gift — a gift that looks rather worn. A daily surrender to the hope, promise and unfolding still to come.

Though there has been pain in the unknown, there has also been much beauty to be found. As I gently pull out our banana leaf nativity set to place high up on our kitchen shelf, I can imagine that beautiful but messy scene on that starry night.

There in the middle of the dirt and straw.

There in the messiness of a stable.

There in the homesickness.

There in the lack of comfort.

There in the instability.

There in the unknown.

There in the longing.

There in the waiting.

The long-awaited and prayed-for Messiah was born.

The words of Gabriel rang true as Mary labored and our Savior entered the dark cold world. “’Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matthew 1:23 ESV).

My attempt at a handcrafted kitenge Advent calendar now hangs on our red brick wall. It’s twenty-four pockets filled with printable Jesse Tree cards — each symbolic of scripture pointing us to the coming King. We meander our way through story after story displaying God’s power, grace, sufficiency, and redemption.

It’s a new tradition we added a few years ago and a reminder that the Lord is with us, wherever we are. Just like those men and women found within the pages of the Bible, longing for a Messiah to come, so, too, do we find ourselves in this place. Waiting for our Savior, and trying to live out His love to the world around us.

There is purpose in our waiting even when we don’t understand or when it seems to be taking too long. Whether waiting for a visa to come through, a furlough after a difficult season, the homesickness to lessen, the unanswered prayers, for progress in ministry, for much-needed healing, or for a long adoption process to finalize — there is growing deep within us that can still happen here. In that messy, middle place of lingering, we become dependent on the only One who can truly sustain us.

The yellow star from our wooden nativity set will move around the house daily, getting closer to the nativity scene as the December days progress. Every morning my three children will gather up their chosen wise man and join the search for the star. As my children search high up on disorganized bookshelves, amongst the clean unfolded laundry still in the basket, or under the cluttered countertop of dishes, the reminder is there.

The anticipation for all that’s to come.

I carefully sort through the white letters to update my felt letter board. The time has come to replace my fall sign, “Give me the African breeze and pumpkin spice please,” to the words that have been sitting on my chest, “It’s beginning to look somewhat like Christmas.” I place it on the entryway table and smile as I turn to hang a wreath given to me from a dear friend, its circular shape made from gathered twigs, pinecones, and a red burlap bow. It’s different than what I’m used to, but it holds its own rustic Christmas charm.

As we find ways to cherish past traditions, we can make room to embrace all the new ways to celebrate Christ’s birth as we wait, minister, and live this beautiful and challenging overseas life under the covering of His love.

In the middle of transition.

In the middle of the uncertainty.

In the middle of the chaos.

In the middle of the mess.

In the middle of the waiting.

He came for us.

He is here with us.

Immanuel.

_________________________

*First published on A Life Overseas - https://www.alifeoverseas.com/its-beginning-to-look-somewhat-like-christmas/