When you live in the jungle, a lot of popular holiday songs
start to sound a bit strange. Wishing for cold weather seems like a foreign
idea, and it’s almost impossible to imagine the Christmas bustle of a big city.
It’s a bit difficult to get into the “Christmas spirit” when you have sweat
dripping down your back.
Celebrating the holidays in a hot climate has forced me to
examine my views of Christmas. Our first Christmas here was actually really
difficult, mostly because it didn’t “feel” like Christmas. It wasn’t cold out.
I didn’t want to curl up by a fire and drink hot chocolate. And bundling up to
go Christmas caroling sounded like a terrible idea. It was tough last year. We
missed family, and we didn’t really feel in a Christmas mood.
This year, we still miss family. But something has changed
in the way we view Christmas. Being here has helped me see that so many of my
ideas of what Christmas is are completely false.
Christmas isn’t a feeling. It isn’t something that should
change based on my location or the temperature outside. It isn’t about snow and
fires and hot drinks. It isn’t about being with family. All these things are
wonderful and beautiful and special. But they aren’t really Christmas.
Christmas should be Christ. It should be celebrating His
birth. It should be a thrill that comes from realizing that God came down to
earth to live among us. To wage war on sin and death and evil.
I thought I knew that when I lived in the States. But I don’t
think I really understood it until many of the things that I usually associate with
Christmas were stripped away.
Don’t get me wrong, I love decorating for Christmas and all
of the traditions that we celebrate as a part of the season. I will still put
up a Christmas tree and wrap presents for my family. But I hope that each year,
I can learn a bit more of what it means to truly celebrate Christ during this
season.
