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I'll be home for Christmas (part four)

I'm trying to make peppermint patties tonight.  Something I never would have even considered doing in the USA.  Something that was outside the realm of reality this time last year.  This time last year in Gulu, there was VERY limited electricity, no cheese, and I couldn't figure out how to bake with the local sugar. Our Christmas feast last year was... creative... a lot of hard work... and NOT like "home!"

But what a luxury - that I can have someone send me peppermint extract and chocolate chips, I can buy powdered sugar...

We spent the day at our friend's village, visiting with her, her family of orphans that she has taken in, and two of the Home of Love children with special medical needs.  We ate a feast and delighted in hearing her testimony of God's grace and provision in her life.  Her home is full of love, mercy, and joy.  Her home is bursting at the seams with clean, happy, Christ-loving children and teenagers who delight in having her as their mother.

There is not a single Christmas decoration hanging, no hint of a Christmas tree.  This Friday before Christmas could have been any Friday.  The garden still needs to be tended to, the water needs to be brought from the well, the floor needs to be swept...

I miss the hub-bub of Christmas, the glow of Christmas lights at night after the children are in bed, the house is silent, and all other lights turned off.  But our friend is living out Christmas day in and day out.  Taking in the orphans, caring for the widows (James 1:27), all with the joy of an incarnate Savior who didn't tithe his blood, but gave ALL of his blood that was necessary to redeem us.

That's Christmas! That's where our home should be - not in the peppermint patties, the turkey, the Christmas lights, the festive gifts, the fun of children opening gifts.  Our home should be in the daily living-out of our religion, a daily manifestation of our incarnate Savior.  I pray that I will be home for Christmas.
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