Christ for Christmas

Last week this time, I rode around Licey with the Vicar to invite people to “Amigos de Jesus” for a Christmas party. I have been in many different types of homes in my time here. For me, the home is more than a place, it is a feeling. In Germany it is “gemütlich”, in England it is “cosy”, in the States it is “cozy”, here it is “cómodo.” While I put words to it and four walls to it, it still is so much more for me than all this. 

In my time here I realize that I am not home, but yet this is my home for now. I am okay with this for now. I realized as I stood in one home with a dirt floor that sits on the top of a mountain; I know something very different. I could try to sugar coat this and talk about how beautiful that house was because it held a family and the love of Christ within it that was far more beautiful than anything. While all that is true, it isn’t that sweet. We are sinners who live in a filthy dirty world. I am a sinner, and all I could think was; “How do people live like this?” 

The reality is that I have been spoiled rotten! I know the feeling of controlled temperatures, drinkable running water, electricity 24 hours a day. I know the luxury of clean sheets to crawl under at night and wake refreshed in the morning. I know the luxury of having whatever I want whenever I want (notice I said "want" not "need"). I’m beginning to realize how many luxuries I had in the States and even still have here in the D.R. 

What this all makes me aware of is the fact that my small transition from sanitation to tropical sweat is only a glimpse of what Christ sacrificed for us. I wonder if his skin crawled the way mine does when I realize just how filthy I am. I wonder if he lay awake at night unable to quite his mind. I wonder if he felt helpless to help even knowing His ultimate plan of salvation. I have no idea how the God of heaven came down and exchanged his home in heaven for a home on this earth. Even in the cleanest places of this earth there is a stench of sin, corruption, and filth that we cannot escape. Yet, it is Christ who took on flesh and blood for us. 

It amazes me to think he gave it all up to share it all. How does that even work!? He wants to share with us, but to do that He had to live in and among us first. He wants to be with us, even if it means crawling skin, a restless mind, bags under his eyes, dirt under his nails, humiliation, discomfort, and death. I’m not so humble, I still live in a mansion in comparison to most people here. On account of Christ however, one day, home will be with Christ. In his exchange we receive this hope and promise. His suffering for our life. I thank God this Christmas that He came, lived, and died so that one day all people in Christ will know what home really is; with Christ, in Him. 

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

2 Corinthians 8:9

 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.