I have smart friends. Kent and Bethany, the two other original members of our little blogging cabal, made profound Christmas observations on their blogs. I advise you to take a look.
As for me, my first Christmas away from my family was equal parts bitter and sweet. Fellow ESI-er Danielle did a wonderful job of making it feel like Christmas by opening her home to a random collection of folks with no place to go. Our potluck Christmas dinner was wonderful, and we had a great time. The toughest moment came when I woke up at 6:30 Christmas morning to call my family in Seattle (where it was 9:30 PM Christmas Eve). For as long as I can remember our family has gathered around our Christmas tree after church on Christmas Eve and all shared a Christmas reading of some kind - poem, scripture, short story, song lyrics, devotional, or anything, really. I think my family would agree that I'm particularly enamored with this tradition (I put it down to being the English major of the family) so I was really happy to be able to use Danielle's internet phone to take part in this tradition intercontinentally. My reading this year was excerpts from a sermon by Fleming Rutledge on the massacre of the infants, commenting on the importance of that detail within the Christmas narrative. She observed that without a recognition of pain, evil, and suffering in the narrative itself it has no more importance than the Rudolf story, or Frosty the Snowman. I was once again reminded how easy it is to insulate ourselves from the pain of the world, and that as long as one of my brothers or sisters is in pain, I am too. My New Years resolution (as it was last year, and the year before): be an agent of God's shalom in this world of pain.
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"Humility, that low, sweet root, From which all heavenly virtues shoot" - Thomas More
3 comments:
hey Matt, thanks for the accolades. Hope your Christmas was swell.
I was in SeaTac the other day picking up Shelly when I ran into Matt and Laura (Laura is Mark Hofman's sister), who are friends of your sister in Seattle. They're also going to Sanctuary. Anywho, your sister was picking them up from the airport, but I lost Matt and Laura somewhere around the baggage claim so I didn't see your sister.
I'm so very jealous! Yeah, I met Matt while watching The Incredibles in my sister and bro-in-law's driveway. I was thinking of last year in Seattle last night as I ushered in the New Year with friends in Prague, and wondered if you knew how many high fives you accumulated in 2005. I hope this year's a great one for both of us!
Happy New Year.
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