Merry Christmas From Northern Uganda!!!!

Merry Christmas from northern Uganda!  Today is Christmas Eve and we are about to spend our first Christmas 8,000 miles from our previous home.  Today also marks exactly seven months since our family boarded a Delta flight out of Birmingham and headed to Africa.  What an incredible seven months it has been!! 

Christmas is certainly different for us here.  For one thing, it’s hot!  We are in the beginning of the dry season here.  As I type this, the temperature is about 97 degrees with about a 20 mph wind blowing.  (This will continue pretty much solid for the next three months.)  We are trying to maintain some of the same family traditions we have, but to be honest Polar Express and hot chocolate just feel weird when you are dripping sweat.  We can’t get in the car this year and ride around and look at Christmas lights.  No going to the malls or stores to let the kids help me pick out their mom’s Christmas present.  So it’s different for sure.

BUT, different doesn’t necessarily mean bad.  What do I mean by that?  Well, it’s certainly different in that many things we are used to are not there anymore. But what we are finding out is that the things that are not there anymore were distracting us from what this season is all about.  Being away from the states has removed us from the busyness of the holidays that took our eyes off the Baby in the manger. 

In the past, by the mid-December,  I (Josh) was so overwhelmed with parties, get togethers, actually PAYING for Christmas, etc. that I couldn’t wait for it to be over.  Is that how we should celebrate the birth of our King?  Just trying to survive the “celebration”???  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying parties and food and get togethers and gifts are bad!  But when they take your eyes off Jesus, it’s certainly a problem.

Being here has allowed our family to fully set our gaze on Jesus.  No pressure to please our kids with the latest Apple product.  No obligations to be at every social function.  Instead, every single night of Advent, just celebrating the fact that God, in His grace, sent His Son, born of a virgin, to be the sacrifice for our sin!  I don’t want to sound cliché or cheesy, but it has been a deep breath of fresh air. 

So on Christmas Eve this year, I urge you to do the same.  Turn your eyes to Jesus.  Celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Enjoy your family and friends, but remember THEY are not the reason for our Christmas celebration.  Make the birth of the King THE priority.  Worship.  Him.  Give thanks for the baby in the manger and give thanks for the cross.  Merry Christmas from the Moody Tribe!