Christmas Reflections

Maybe this is the first year we hosted for Christmas, and the planning made me think more about Christmas this time than years past.

If we strip away the Christmas tree, the music, the food, the gifts, even the Church services, and everything else, believers of Jesus Christ still have Christmas, because what is important is what is in the heart, not the momentary happiness any external thing brings. But what about those who do not know Him and do not have a personal relationship with Him?

When hubby and I picked up things at Wal-Mart shortly before Christmas, the cashier greeted us with a smile on her face and asked if we were ready for Christmas. As we kept on talking, she told us she did not intend to celebrate Christmas, as her husband was no longer living. In fact, she had not celebrated Christmas since he passed away six years ago. Slowly, her smile that greeted us was replaced by sadness, while Christmas music was still playing and shoppers were still cheerfully buying for Christmas.

A couple of days before Christmas, I made another trip to get ready. On the way home, I saw the many bumper stickers at the back of the pickup truck in front of me. One of the stickers stated "Pagan & Proud." As I browsed his collection of bumper stickers which made the clear statement that he was not a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, the radio in my car was playing the song "Mary, Did You Know?" As the singer sang about baby Jesus as God Incarnate and the reason He came as a baby, multitudes of people did not know the Good News, and many chose not to accept it.

The morning after Christmas, our door bell rang. It was a lady who came to share the doctrines she upheld as a Jehovah's Witness. She told me we should not celebrate Jesus' birth, but only His death. As we exchanged thoughts and beliefs, I noticed the younger lady who came along with her two very young daughters, aged 4 and 3. Adorable as they were, these girls were not being taught about Christmas and the meaning of Jesus' birth.

Another Christmas has gone by - what does Christmas mean to each of them?

Christmas Memories

Hubby and I hosted part of our family for Christmas for the first time. With my brother- and sister-in-law and our three nephews, we had a great time celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Here are some highlights -

We had our first Christmas tree!

Hanes was trying to stay warm by the lights as we decorated a few weeks ago. A very warm and calm scene.


Hubby was putting ornaments on the tree as Hanes "supervised." She likes bags a lot.


Our tree surrounded by Christmas gifts.


Everybody had a good time opening Christmas presents. The excitement on the children's faces was priceless. The word "awesome" kept flying in the air.

Our guests opening presents. Sorry about my hand and hubby's foot.


When our middle nephew, Alex, age 4, tore off the wrapping paper of a gift, he said "It's a box!" thinking he received a box for Christmas. We all laughed with him. :) With mommy's help, he quickly realized that there were shirts inside the box.


One of the presents our oldest nephew, David, age 7 (almost 8!), received was a card game called "Frog Juice." He had never seen the game before (neither had I) so when he read the title, he was somewhat frightened. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to capture his expression which was a combination of uncertainty and fear. But after reading the subtitle, he realized it was a card game, not real "frog juice." This picture was taken during this moment of relief. He actually enjoyed the game.


On a side note, David was very surprised when he accidentally found out I spoke Chinese. I did not know he did not know!

From Grammy!
(Those were Hubby's hands, and if I remember correctly, David took the picture)

Throughout the day, our youngest nephew, Miguel, age 2, came running to me many times to give me hugs and later, kisses.

Seeing a baby picture on our fridge, Alex asked me the name of the baby. After I told him the name, he carefully repeated it with a somewhat serious look on his face. Two seconds later, however, he broke out his usual bright smile and asked me another question: "when are you going to have a baby in your house?" I get asked this question on a regular basis, but he officially became the youngest to do so :)

After I gave him a bath, Alex gave me a long hug and said "Merry Christmas" to me. It was a very unexpected, and very sweet moment.

David told all of us "Merry Christmas" before he went to bed.

We got to talk on the phone with other family members with whom we could not spend Christmas together due to distance.

Watch out for "flying" child!

As a bonus, weather was very nice.

My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came to the world as a baby to redeem us, giving us the precious gift of Himself and the way to spend eternity with Him. I am thankful to be able to celebrate His birth with loved ones.

Merry Christmas

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

Luke 2: 8-18

Porcelain Cup

I recieved a beautiful Christmas present from a faculty member in my Department today. She gave me a porcelain cup hand crafted by her husband who had been making pottery for many years. I was very delighted in receiving this present and certainly appreciated the thoughtfulness and kindness.

Since our Department is in the process of moving this week, I took home my Christmas present instead of leaving it in my current office. During the ten-minute walk to my car, I was holding the cup with both hands to make sure I would not accidentally drop it or break it. When I got to the car, I wrapped it with my scarf so it could be protected during its ride home.

The gift made it home safely.

Nonetheless, I was wondering about something. If I was so careful about a gift - beautiful as it was, but something that would not last for eternity - how much care do I give to the Greatest Gift of all that is invaluable? Especially during this Christmas season, it is a great time to ponder upon the wonderful and humble birth of Jesus Christ. However, I am not sure how much I have been thinking about it this year.

I have been going Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, visiting the post office, writing my newsletter, decorating and doing all kinds of things to get ready for Christmas Day...... But while I have been making preparations to welcome the special season, I find myself going around the Center doing these things more than preparing myself.

I was reading Luke 2 in the Bible and was reminded once again that Mary had to put Jesus in a manger because there was no room for Joseph, Mary and the newborn King.

During this Christmas season, I pray that I remember Who is more important and learn to be like Mary who chose to sit at the feet of Jesus rather than keeping busy with things that could wait. I also pray that I would treasure Jesus more than I do a beautiful porcelain cup, and always have room for Him in my heart.

With All My Might

I lost my last two tennis matches, but that was not the end of this simple story.

During the first of these two matches, my partner and I fell behind 3-5 in the first set. It happened to be my turn to serve and we quickly fell to 0-40, down three set points! Yikes. I really did not want to lose the set so easily so I told myself to keep fighting, one point at a time, even though the chance of coming back from behind and saving the game was rather slim. But I served and we won the next point, and in a blur, we somehow won five points in a row and the game! It felt so great. We were now at 4-5 and would eventually play the tiebreak to decide the set.

On the second point of the tiebreak, I was at the baseline as my opponent placed a very short ball with a sharp angle that was out of my reach. I knew I would not be able to get to the ball in time, but I decided to run after it but ended up scraping my knee quite badly and bruising my pinky because of not-so-ideal movement (I did not get to the ball in time). It was the first time I had ever hurt myself playing tennis. In the end, we lost the tiebreak and went on to lose the second set 4-6. Close match.

The following match, my partner and I lost two tiebreaks so the match was even closer. I did not hurt myself, but I was fighting the entire time. We were behind in the first set, ahead in the second, even though we lost in the end.

Around the same time, I was doing a Bible study on the life of David entitled Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed with my Bible Study group at church (great study!). Right before I played the match in which I scraped my knee, we were studying how David danced with all his might as he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. After a deadly mistake, David returned to God and did his best in following His lead.

As I was chasing down balls on the tennis court, trying to play the points the best I could, trying to come back, I was doing it with all my might as well. Although I lost the matches and had some trouble walking for a couple of days, I felt really great because I knew I had done my best in doing what I was supposed to be doing at the moment.

A fundamental rule in tennis is to fix one's eyes on the tennis ball during play and go after it. The Bible says that we are to love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. When we fix our eyes on God, pursue Him and give Him our all, we might scrape our knees a little along the way, but it is well worth it.

Shoebox Blessings

In seven weeks, I witnessed firsthand how God worked in His amazing and mighty ways through Operation Christmas Child (see background here).

I thought I would pack a couple of shoeboxes this year; but I was also curious to see if a few others might want to be involved. However, since I was still relatively new to the town where we now lived, I was content with the idea of having a few people involved and perhaps packing a couple dozen shoeboxes.

It turned out my ladies' Bible study leader at church had wanted to involve the group in something and she had heard of OCC. So I had a group of ladies with whom to work! A few of them then got their Sunday School classes and the school where they worked involved. One of them also received donations in large quantities from her dentist, hairdresser and neighbors! My own neighbors also generously donated shoeboxes from their closets, and a local shoe store saved 30 boxes for the project!

While all this was unfolding, I learned that another lady from Bible study happened to be on the Missions Committee at church and she suggested linking OCC to the church-wide missions event which would happen to take place right before National Collection Week in November. We were able to set up a shoebox packing party, and the Missions Committee included OCC as one of the many exhibitors of the Ministry Fair (see pictures below). During the church-wide event, we had a booth that attracted a good number of visitors who expressed great interests in packing shoeboxes. I gave away all the brochures!

Despite the short time frame, over 100 shoeboxes were packed/collected and nearly $500 were donated through the ladies at Bible study. That was much bigger than the two shoeboxes I was going to pack. We even received help to drop off the shoeboxes at the collection point during National Collection Week.

While the results are great and well beyond my expectations, I am thankful to those, many of them children themselves, who participated in the project. Whatever they donated - empty shoeboxes, filler items, money, time - I see their beautiful hearts for others as many went out of their way to help. To think that many children around the world will be receiving Christmas presents and hearing the true meaning of Christmas as a result is, of course, even greater.

This project is not about me or what I wanted to do; I am simply thankful to God for allowing me to be a part of His awesome work.

This was the booth at the Ministry Fair at church. On display were some of the packed shoeboxes.

More boxes (but not all)!