When I think about 2017, I can't quite decide what kind of year it was. It had some really wonderful highs, and some really heartbreaking lows. It was a year movement, of the girl I'd been before, and the woman I was becoming. I had to start taking my mental health seriously. I was working with some of the best friends I'll ever have. A friend died tragically. I moved to an amazing new city. My former choir director and major reason for my love of music passed away from cancer. One of my best friends got married to one of the best guys on the planet. Then there were all the insane things that have happened in the world this year. But, for every struggle, there was an equally powerful force of good in my life.
I find myself drawn to the following lyrics: Remember the kisses, remember the laughter, and all that's gone away. It so clearly describes my feelings about 2017. I remember the good times. I remember the bad times. That's life, I suppose. Life in a flawed universe. The insane thing about being Christian is that God calls us to trust and praise him in all times. Even more insane? That actually makes sense. In some of the hardest times this year, I realized that my faith was never shaken, never in question. I might have had moments of anger, of confusion at how God could allow tragedy to occur, but never rejection. Instead, I found all my hope resting in the promise of Jesus Christ's redemption for all the world. Each and every struggle became a promise that there is something better to come.
2017 in a handful of photos...
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Three things I learned in Germany this Christmas: 1) a piece of chocolate on bread with butter is part of a nutritious and delicious breakfast; 2) never let a cat push your phone into its water dish; and 3) Christmas is Christmas, no matter where you are. I love Christmas. It truly is the best time of the year, in my opinion. Twinkling lights and music everywhere you go, festive colors decorating everything from shopfronts to sweaters. Back home, Christmas made our little town look like something out of a kids book, with the old fashioned shops lit with simple golden light, and the same lights adorning the trees that lined the street. At church, we start Christmas Eve with a family service, complete with a Christmas pageant, followed by a big potluck Christmas Eve dinner. But that wasn't where I was this year. By not being home, however, I think I appreciated more the story of the Christ Child, and how he came for all humankind, not just a small college town on the NY State-Canadian border. Since the end of November, I have been collecting and sharing photos of Advent and Christmas celebrations around the world on the Anglican Communion's brand new Instagram. Some of these photos are remarkably similar: carol services, candle lit, children in nativity costumes. And others are starkly unique, like the mission focused advent service with traditional dances in the Caribbean. Men and women from across the globe raised their voices in praise and celebration for the coming of the Christ Child, all captured in pictures. Each one made me think more and more about how each person, from every culture, claims this story as their own. I hadn't realized how much I, too, absorbed the story of Jesus into my personal worldview. And then I went to Germany. Even though I'd been looking at and sharing these international Christmas photos, I didn't fully understand it. Not till Christmas Eve. As you might expect, the Christmas Eve service was all in German, and all the hymns unfamiliar. The service itself felt different; there was no nativity pageant, no carols by candlelight, no Communion. But it was still Christmas. The Christ Child still came. Just like he came to Ethiopia, to New Zealand, to the U.K., to Japan, to all the churches that shared their celebrations with me. When the angels appeared to the shepherds on the night of Christ's birth, they proclaimed Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. God himself came down to earth as a child to live and die among us, flawed humankind. All humankind. One of my favorite Christmas songs is a James Taylor melody, Some Children See Him. Each verse is about how children from around the world see Jesus like them, wearing their face and living their life. Thats the power of Jesus and the purpose of the Christmas story. God came to live like us, with us, for all of us. And we in turn see Jesus in our own lives, and celebrate accordingly. With that in mind, I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. The children in each different place |
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Me: Amelia BrownAvid runner & baker, following God's call to year of mission and service work in the Episcopal Church & Anglican Communion. Archives
August 2018
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