¨God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.¨ - CS Lewis
¡Feliz Navidad! Well, almost. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so far it feels like it will pass just like any other day here, but I hope not. The week has indeed been filled with fun things for the children as many benefactors come out of the woodwork for the holidays. So far a few groups have come and distributed toys which is very exciting for them as they generally have very few. However, the children at Casas Familias were equally excited when Jim presented every child with new underwear and towels...try giving that to a child in the states for Christmas and you´re an idiot. But no, here these sweet babies were jumping up and down and carrying on, just to have something new of their very own, even if it was underwear and a towel with their name on it in sharpie. What a totally new perspective there is to be had, being so seperated from the Christmas rush. Granted, we have been supremely busy because many of the children were leaving for vacations and because of all of these toy giving events, but it is still different.
One of the cooler things this week was that a family from Guayaquil paid for 140 of our kids to participate in a day at a water park in Salinas, a huge tourist city about two hours away. All of our kids, the small to the big, got to go in bus to the water park, spend the afternoon there, eat a lunch of hamburgers (really cool thing here), and receive ice cream, cake and a bag of treats. It was great. For our kids, who pretty much never get to leave base, to be able to experience something as novel as a water park, wow. For a few hours that afternoon, I was with 140 totally different kids, their joy was so immense. Sometimes just to be a kid in a water park is such a necessary experience and I am thankful for that family´s generosity.
But again, all of these experiences, in the light of being with children who have so little material wise, has helped me seek further the root of Christmas, the babe in the crib, come to save the world in the humilty of flesh. Because here we don´t have the malls decorated for Christmas (at least not in this part of the peninsula), we don´t have the usual smells, sounds and lights of the time of year that usually help me ¨get in the spirit¨ and therefore I have had to seek that somewhere else. I am thankful for this experience, it has been difficult to be away from home but I am thankful for it nonetheless. I hope I can always remember the excitement those children had to receive the underwear and towels, things we don´t even consider as gifts but rather are givens in life, and always be able to receive everything in my life with that same joy and gratitude. I hope that I can accept the humble offering of a naked child in a barn, born without pretense or glitter, born to be my Savior but waiting in humility to be received, with the same joy as those children who have nothing because at the end of the day, I have nothing other than this gift of love.
A very Merry Christmas to all.
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