My house is quiet.
Like, really quiet.
The hum of the fridge goes unnoticed.
In this city where we more often hear street dogs than frogs, tonight, it's frogs.
He's exhausted,
She finally wore out.
And, me? I'm thinking.
I'm sitting here near to the Christmas lights,
I'm thinking.
As make shift as it may be, it feels precious to me.
Each ornament that was sent, arriving 2 months late last year, is precious.
But more than the romance of the lights
Is my hearts longing to get back to the cradle.
Back to the humble entrance
The simplicity of the babe.
Because even here,
Even with the title of "missionary" I can slip away.
We get busy, even here.
I get frustrated, especially here.
And, I get lonely.
In this quiet night as I'm thinking
About all the emails I haven't written.
All the Skype calls I haven't made.
How 14 months have passed again and I haven't seen your faces.
I haven't held your hands and I haven't hugged my family.
I'm missing you.
Under these lights I'm missing you.
And as beautiful as my life is here,
As much as I'm in love with where we are,
The laying down has to happen again, new, every day.
Jesus in a manger.
Enough for all my pain.
More than enough for every ache of missing.
But still I long,
To have a latte with you,
To eat your Christmas treats,
To pinch your sweet cheeks and tickle your sweatered belly.
To look in your eyes and hear how you are.
To giggle and laugh about memories past,
To slip on the ice and buy some new boots.
To stand in a line where's it's clean,
And I hear a language I understand, all of it.
The list goes on and on.
My prayer is,
as we think about that Silent Night,
That that baby who saves is enough,
to make you feel close to me.
And me feel close to you.
May you know I love you.
And may the
"simple" be enough this year.
But, although "simple", it is precious.
Even with the missing being hard,
It's worth it, because He owes me nothing,
He came,
He's coming
And we come together to remember that Holy Night.
Even from far away.
It's what I'm thinking,
as I sit under these lights missing you...
