Loving the Least of These

Another year has passed, and Christmas is just around the corner. I think it's safe to say that in the past Christmas certainly has not been my favorite holiday, for multiple reasons. But this year I was a little more excited as the holiday season approached. I'm not sure why. But as it gets closer and closer I'm starting to remember all the reasons I didn't like Christmas so much in the past. Or at least didn't like how it is done here in America. For the last few years I had the privilege of celebrating Christmas in Honduras. In Honduras most families cannot afford to buy a lot of toys, if any for their children. Some of the "lucky ones" can buy one or two gifts for their kids. That's it. But in their culture the celebration is far more about spending time with their loved ones. They don't go out and spend hundreds of dollars ( even the ones that could afford that) on presents. Instead they get a few small gifts and spend the holiday season surrounded by the ones that they love. They go to church and thank God for how he has blessed them, and for the Gift that Jesus is to the world. I think I get angry when I spend Christmas here. I'm trying not to. I really am. But I just wish that our culture would move in that direction, spend less money and spend more time with the people they love and celebrating how blessed we really are. This year my family has asked me a hundred times what I want for Christmas and I honestly could not think of one that I wanted, much less "needed" for Christmas. Sure, there are things I'd like to have. But it just doesn't feel right to expect a hundred gifts this year. And if I'm really honest, the things that I really want for Christmas are not things that can be bought. If I'm really honest, this would be my Christmas list...

A place where little girls don't have to fight for their life because malnutrition and dirty water have plagued their life.
A world where 30,000 children don't starve to death every night.
A world where no child sleeps on the streets because they have no place to call 'home'.
A Uganda where children don't live in fear of being abducted and turned into a " child soldier".
A Honduras where mommas don't have to dig through mounds of MY trash to feed their babies.
A world without DUMPS where human beings live.
A world where little boys don't have to be scared of a daddy that gets drunk and beats them.
A world where sweet kiddos don't die of curable diseases.
A world where 8 year old little girls don't have to be blind due to cataracts.
W world where pain and suffering have ceased.
A world where little ones don't have to sniff glue to numb the pain of hunger, and to feel warm at night as they sleep on the streets, alone.
An America that accepts everyone, and strives to make life a little easier for those who are not as privileged as we are.
A world where little girls all over the world don't live in fear of being sold as a sex slave.
An America that would stop pretending not to see poverty.
An America that would stop enslaving people to satisfy our own selfish wants and desires.
A world where hate, violence and war have ceased.
A world where families don't split up and divorce is not prevalent.
A world that believes that Jesus really meant what he said.
A world that surrenders their life in reckless abandon to follow a God that IS redeeming us and making ALL things new.