No, it’s not December as I write or maybe even as you are reading. While cleaning out some Christmas cards today my mind wandered back to previous holidays spent in China.
The specific verses in Luke 2 were written on so many cards. Did even half the people who sent them have any idea about the “good news of great joy” that the angels announced? Those five words represent an eternity of preparation and years of history that culminate in a birth account no one could make up.
My time in China as a teacher included yearly gatherings in my home, with one year’s celebration building on the previous one. Christmas not only brought no time off but was usually during or just before final exams. In my location, the daily temperatures were below zero with beautiful snow-covered parks but icy sidewalks and winds that made shopping and transportation a huge challenge.
Yet, we gathered and depending on the age and interests of our students and the feedback from previous events, we baked, decorated, sang, made and ate cookies, exchanged gifts, and shared the historical account that few knew in detail.
A young mother in my English class described the Christmas account after a holiday party in my home: “This is an amazing story. I’ve read it to my daughter many times since I heard it last year! It has everything! Omens, dreams, romance, magic, tragedy!”
Some of us have grown up with the Christmas story being part of our December celebration—in our home, at a school pageant, or in a movie. It might have been biblically accurate or perhaps some license was taken.
But amazing? Did I think it then and what about now? Do I think it “has everything”?
Seeing any aspect of our faith through others’ eyes—especially in another culture, is like putting on a set of new glasses. The questions, the doubts, the rejection, the wonder, and yes, the amazement force one to look anew at what might be treasured but unchallenged.
Colleagues, students, local believers, and teammates all have shed new light on an account I thought I knew. Sometimes it was unsettling, eye-opening, and encouraging all at the same time.
“So many dreams! The astronomers and her boyfriend believed them! I think I might have wanted more proof.”
“She knew so much about her god.”
“Chinese people celebrate this too, you know.”
“What’s the connection with Santa?”
A professor, just returned from a year in Tokyo, shared: “When I was working in Japan, I heard the same story. And a Korean colleague knew it too.”
In the middle of a reading of Luke 2 in Chinese, a young freshman looked up at her classmates. “It’s true, you know,” she said firmly, and then continued on. I had never heard her share her beliefs before.
“Her boyfriend didn’t desert her!”
“How could astronomers and a king know about one baby’s birth?”
“Does anyone care that all those little boys were killed?”
“We also have a story where a spirit makes a girl pregnant.”
“In the Passion movie, he is killed. But people wanted him killed when he was just a baby! Why?”
“I still don’t understand how a baby can save people from anything.”
“Angels sang to shepherds! Why shepherds?”
I’m thankful for each question and observation. They have changed how I view Christmas in four foreign countries and in my own home. Each reveals a miraculous part of this amazing birth that brought salvation to all. And that is the good news of great joy!
Have you ever faced these questions, whether in a foreign culture or within your own family? What were your responses? Of course, the audience guides the reply, but if you were all alone going through this list, how would you respond?
