He was in the
world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
This has been
tiring Christmas. I (Dave) preached last Sunday, Christmas day and I’m preaching
again this Sunday. That in itself is not a hardship but Jennifer has developed
a nasty ear infection that has progressively gotten worse over the week to the
point that ear drops were useless because her ear swelled shut. The pain has
made sleeping difficult, as well as bouts of fever. The church had a late night
Christmas Eve program scheduled but Jennifer’s fever started to spike that
evening and I was concerned to leave her alone for too long. (The church
program was intended to start around 7:30 with the Jesus film, and continue on
until 1 AM. I was later informed that it continued until almost two in the morning!)
I made a quick stop at the church with the boys to drop off our Christmas Santa
gifts and then visited a few non-Christian families in our neighbourhood to
deliver cookies. One family lives next to our house in a grass hut. As I walked
into the yard one lady said, “Oh David, do you remember my little sister who
got married awhile back? Well she’s here now and she just gave birth! Come and
see the baby.” In the darkness I was led into their hut and in the faint glow
of someone’s cell phone, a sleeping baby was brought and put into my arms. I
couldn’t help but thinking that in the simple family’s hut with sheep out in
the yard, I was here holding baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. Surprised by it all
my Zarma language skills went out the window, and the family giggled because
all I could keep saying was “A ga bori—it’s good.”
I hope that
somewhere in your holiday season you’ve encountered the Christ who was born at
Christmas. Jennifer is still fighting fever as the pain and swelling moves out
from her ear and into her jaw and neck. We did get to a clinic today and hopefully
the meds she received might allow both of us to get some sleep tonight.
