So this is Christmas...

The teachers just finished our meeting trying to put together a Christmas performance for the kids at our school's Christmas concert on Saturday. All the kids will perform. Some classes will sing. Some will act. Hopefully, all will put on a good show for the parents and the higher ups.

So this is Christmas.

I love Christmas. The music, the food, the fellowship, the family, the meaning behind Christmas. Everything. But this Christmas is slightly different. There is added pressure. The kids. Most of them don't celebrate Christmas at home. Most of my kids are Buddhist. Sharing my experience of Christmas is important. Sharing the fun stuff is significant to them. And sharing the meaning behind Christmas is crucial. Christmas is not about presents. Not about songs and decorations. It's about a time when the world recieved a Saviour.

To do that professionally and with love is hard to a bunch of screaming kids whose first language is not English. And to live out the joy and life that Christmas reminds us of to the teachers and parents is hard. Recently, I've not quite been myself. I have to be serious and professional with the other teachers and I have to be the strict disciplinarian with my kids. At home, the principal is my roommate. She's my friend and companion but, technically, she's also my boss.

So I find myself sitting in school typing away and remembering the times when I didn't care about what people think and was a bit of a rebel. I've mellowed. Not been a rebel for so long. Haven't sang and danced and acted silly in so long. Things like that are frowned upon here... Or maybe, I've forgotten. Forgotten how to be bold. Forgotten how to go against the grain. Not just for the sake of being different but because we all benefit from a bit of change and a bit of challenge. A bit of reminder why we do what we do. Iron sharpens iron. I'm a bit like jello these days.

Or maybe, I am growing older. Watching what I say, what I do. Walking nicely, sitting straight, smiling and nodding at parents, using my 'professional voice' all the time... Is this what growing older is supposed to be like? It's hard to tell if I've taken a step forward or 2 steps back anymore.

Well, this is a detour from the topic of Christmas. But I guess it is also an apt topic. New birth. Great beginnings. God reaching down to grab us out of the miry clay we've been sitting in. My miry clay consists of fear, bitterness, apprehension, disapointment, pride... The list goes on. Everything that I wished I lived up to but never could and never can! But this, what God is offering, is the greatest rescue the world has ever know. A Saviour!

We may grow old but we never quite grow up. Up to where we want to be, where we wish we could be. In moral standards, in professional career, in life and in love... And we never grow tired of needing to be rescued. God knows I need a Saviour. On days like these. Everyday.

Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:11-12

Merry Christmas one and all!