The holiday season is always my favorite part of the year. This is nothing new to anyone who knows me. Regardless of age, every September (yes, you read that right, I said September) something happens inside of me and I transform into a seven-year old boy, with all the hopes and wonderment of a world filling with joy, people getting out of their routine lives for extra festivities with friends and families, the world around us changing to the purest white of whites in a marshmallow landscape: the peacefulness of the still winter air caressing itself over freshly lain flakes of snow that dance with sparkle and brightness over the barren ground. 
(Note: Next time it snows, take a minute to stand outside and do nothing but listen. The sound is magical.)
Then, soon around Thanksgiving, you’ll start seeing additions to lawns and adornments on homes bringing in the joyous season. People appear happier. Maybe it’s a front, hiding all the stress and panic of the season, and perhaps I’m just a hopeless optimist, but I picture everyone in a Christmas card picture of carolers keeping warm with muffs, exuberantly singing songs of our Lord Christ’s birth, under a street lamp adorned with evergreens and red bows.
Everything around us transforms. Even as I write this, computerized snowflakes fall from the top of the WordPress page. Everything around us welcomes in the best part of the year.
What happens, though, when things are not as they appear? When the picture we have in our heads is not true to form of life? The truth is that much of the joyous Christmas season is full of stress, long lines in the shops, bad traffic on the roads, disgruntled employees not satisfied with the office “holiday” party, nor their Christmas bonuses.
Tonight, while walking downtown with some friends, trying to soak up as much of this Christmas town nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains (come on people, there’s even songs designated to the Colorado Christmas!), we walked past multiple homeless men and women lying on their cardboard mats, curling up in donated coats and blankets. 
After we arrived at the restaurant, we were distracted by an “in-love” couple of maybe 20-year old women. (It was difficult not to notice them.) After the restaurant we walked down the 16th Street Mall
(a true landmark in downtown Denver) to see all the trees lit with strands of lights, wreaths on the shop doors, evergreen trees everywhere, and towers of buildings warmed with the bright lights of purples, reds, greens, blues, and golds.
Driving one of my friends home, I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d be doing for Christmas–if he had any place to go? Would there be a present for him under anyone’s tree? His family lives several thousands of miles away, and I’m one of his only friends (who happens to be leaving later this week.) Does he have anyone to take him to the eye doctor? Surely he can’t ride his bike home in snow if his eyes have been dialated? Can he even afford a prescription for glasses? (He didn’t ask for any favors, by the way. He never does. And, yet, without much to his name, he remains a genuinely happy person! )
And then I think of the question that’s been coming up a lot lately: You’re leaving before Christmas? Wont that be difficult? Wont you miss your family? (Ok, so three questions.) In answer to all three questions, I give a resounding “Yes!” But, looking at the homeless person huddling next to a mailbox to cut the wind so she can get a few hours sleep, or the lost young women in the restaurant, or at the friend with no one around, how can I honestly say that I have anything “rough?!” I have a family to miss at Christmas, and I have a family who will be missing me! I have a Savior who will not wave goodbye to me as I board the planes on Saturday, but the One who tells the ocean to calm will be on that plane with me as we cross the vast waters. And I know that when I do feel a little selfish and lonely for what I’m “leaving behind” or “missing,” that I don’t have to look far. All around Ukraine there are homeless with no warm homes to decorate for Christmas, or set the table in for a family feast. There are nameless-yet-numbered children with no family memories of the holidays, no special gifts from “mommy and daddy” because they don’t have a mommy and daddy. Instead, they spend the most wonderful time of the year in an orphanage, while others are sliding down the slopes on Christmas morning with there new season lift tickets. (Please, if you do have season lift tickets, do not think I am condemning you!!! I’m not! Just don’t neglect a thankful, joyful spirit for ALL you have been blessed with!!)
There is SO much work for the kingdom that needs to happen here in Denver. There is SO much work for the kingdom that needs to happen in Lviv. I could say that my work here in Denver is done, but not only does that put an un-warrented focus on self, but it’s also just plain wrong! We have no work anywhere! Only that which Christ works through us is worth anything. As the old hymn suggests, “Not what my hands have done…” And, for me to say that my work is done in Denver, is to assume position as God! Only He can say when our work is done, wherever He’s placed us, not us! And we’ll know our work is done, because we’ll be standing in His presence and we’ll hear Him whisper to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
That to say, our work is NEVER done until He calls us Home! Whether we leave a city/ state/ country for a while and pick up His calling elsewhere, until we’ve seen Him face to face, our work for His Kingdom is NOT done. So, carry on servant of Christ! There’s no days off with this role of being a child and servant of God– no “vacation time,” no “sick days.” Not when millions of souls around the world need to hear of the saving work of Christ Jesus!
The Christmas lights will come down. The Christmas trees will be recycled. The presents will rip or break. Your kids will love the boxes more than the toys that came in them. You will feel the January-reflection-of-bills-enduced-depression. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ; keep them on the work of His glorious Kingdom. He came to seek and save the lost, and calls us to do the same. Do you remember what your 7th present under the tree was when you were six? No? Exactly. “All things, too, shall pass. Only that which is done for Christ will last.”
So, this Christmas season, get out of your homes, schedule in an off-night for the city around you. Go where you normally wouldn’t go. Look around. Look again. Look at ALL He’s given you! From the car you drove in, to the warm home you sleep in, to the city of hungry people NEEDING to hear about the hope that is Christ that He’s place
YOU in! Share a meal with lost and confused young woman. Give one of your coats (because, honestly, do we need one on our backs and three in our closet not doing what they’ve been created to do?) to a struggling person on the street.
And, have yourself a blessed little Christmas, knowing that Emmanuel is with us! And His Command is with us too.
Blessings and Peace,Adam
Hi Adam,
Looking forward to your next post from L’viv.
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