Merry Christmas!

Today was my annual Christmas celebration, for the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, on the 7th (unless you're in Armenia, in which case it's on the 6th, I still don't understand why). As with last year, I gathered a few from my church and we looked at some of the Eastern traditions, talking about their focus on II Peter 1.4, that Christ became human that we might become divine. Therefore Christmas is the central part of soteriology for them, not Easter. The pivotal moment is when He transformed the nature of reality and thereby transforming us. I read from Psalm 51 in the Orthodox chanting style, as I learned from attending Orthodox services in the mornings at Fuller. And then we had a choral reading of The Story of the Other Wiseman, each taking a chapter of the slim 70 page book.

I love this story. It is so moving, so multi-layered. I think it is the finest book or movie of Christmas (and Easter) I know of- the story of what happened to the fourth Wiseman, when he got left behind, and how he searched for the King of the Jews, and found Him in a quite unexpected way. I cry every time I read it.

Adam was one of those attending the Eastern Christmas Party last year, and I had the deep honor of seeing him again, with his Sweetums (And are they cute together or what?!), as he stopped by Seattle while staying in Tacoma over the holidays. It was just really neat to see someone from Morocco again, to catch up, to share. A true blessing, over Mexican and excellent horchata.