December 2007
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In This Issue
Immanuel Has Come!
My mother’s nativity figures were made of simple felt and stuffed with cotton. They weren’t fancy or out-of-reach like the porcelain dolls that stared down from a shelf, beautiful but distant. They sat on an end table where baby Jesus was close enough to touch.
I thought of the figures last week as I admired the Christmas displays at Global Gifts. I saw tall, skinny shepherds made of woven banana leaves from Uganda; Peruvian painted-clay wise men, round and colorfully dressed; sheep made of smooth-sanded olive wood from the strife-torn West Bank; a tiny stable scene carved from an Ecuadorian tago nut, and pastel-colored crocheted finger puppets from Vietnam. At the center of each scene lay Jesus, declaring in the many colors of his face that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us all.
These imported treasures, and the nativity figures of my childhood, highlight the most beautiful truth of Christmas: God has come to be close to us! Week after week in Sunday school we tell awe-inspiring stories of a mighty, sovereign God who is the great creator, provider, and promise keeper. At Christmas these stories find their balance in the small face of the baby lying in a manger. In this amazing story we find God walking among us, becoming one of us. He greets us as Jesus the baby, who will have parents, siblings, and school days. A God who knows just what it feels like to be small!
As we lead Walk With Me at Christmas, we draw kids into this powerful truth. We gather them around a manger to peek in at a Savior who came to dwell with the kids who sit still like little figurines and the ones who run circles around frayed teachers. He came to embrace those who wear new clothes and those who come to church in stained hand-me-downs. His arms extend to kids from families of all shapes and sizes, with skin reflecting many hues, whose experiences, gifts, and abilities are diverse. Christ’s presence on earth assures us that God sees us, knows us, and loves us.
As we celebrate again this baby in the manger, our prayer is that you and the kids in your life will experience the wonder of Christmas: the God who “is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
—Jolanda Malburg, Coordinator of Training and Consulting
| Global Gifts is a church sponsored fair-trade store in |
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