No Crib for a Bed

    I love Christmas time!  I love the story of my Saviour's birth.  I love the songs, I love the family gatherings.  Now, to tell you the truth (and at the risk of sounding kinda like Scrooge), I couldn't care less about the tree, the decorations, and the gifts.  I mean it.  I'd rather my girls kissed me Christmas morning, and sang carols with me all day long without handing me one gift.  It's not that I'm stingy and don't want to get THEM one... or ten.  I'd just rather it not be a part of Christmas.  I don't believe it to be super spirituality or anything, but I just feel like it cheapens Christmas.  SO much money spent on things nobody really wants, much less needs.  SO much worry about whether one of my girls will feel shorted this year.   And that dumb tree makes such a mess and takes so long to put up and even longer to take down.  Yes, I'm exaggerating, but I really could do without the commercialization of Christmas.

    This bantering of mine is somewhat new.  I think I've grown into this attitude.  The more I preach about Christ and His birth, the more I see the Christmas story pushed into a corner to bring in the bigger, the heavier, and the more expensive gifts.  Now, I don't believe that Jesus was born in December, but I don't mind joining many other Christians in celebrating His birth on the 25th.  I don't like the tree, but I'm not against it.  One day, when we first moved up to the mountains of Peru, I told my family that we could have a tree but that I didn't want it the main attraction in our house.  Some of the Peruvian Christians had questioned the use of the tree by believers.  To avoid offending them, I was glad to have an excuse to not make my living room a winter wonderland.  I decided to put the tree in the corner of a room on the second floor of our house.  A room that was usually a storage room, but was a nice little room that could be used as a TV room or a reading room, right on the front of the house.  We set up the tree, and lit it up.  It was neat to see the girls, who were much smaller then, smile broadly at our accomplishment.  And I must admit, our fake tree still looks good after 11 years of use.  Well, one night, not long after, I was driving home when I realized my mistake.  Now, instead of having to walk into our house and see the shrine to Christmas, it lit up the whole front of our house from inside the window on the second floor.  Now, EVERYONE could see it.  Oh, well.  My intentions were good.

    I am not writing this to discuss Christmas per say, but one particular part of Christmas.  You see, my family and I have just moved back down to Peru after about six months in the US for what everyone else calls "furlough" (or rest.)  Really, it is a lot more work to be on "rest" in America than at "work" in Peru.  Anyway, since we gave up our rental home that we had lived in for the past six years, we need to find a new house.  We also were blessed with a little baby girl back in March.  The Lord worked it out so that my wife could be in the US for the delivery.  That turned out to be a very good thing considering some of the complications she had.  All is well, and we named our little one Sienna Grace.  I thought about putting a stamp on her foot when she was born that said "Made in Peru", but my wife turned down the idea.

    The complications I mention were preeclampsia and placenta previa, neither of which we had ever had to deal with.  Stephanie got so bad at four-months pregnant, she was ordered on bedrest by her doctor.  The girls and I took over the cooking and cleaning, and we tried to get Stephanie to the US as soon as possible.  Once, while she was still walking around, she began to fret over the birth, assuming the worst from all she had been reading about her particular problems.  I decided one day to ease her conscience and distract her from her needless worry.  I bought her a crib.  Five months from her due date, we walked into a little store that I had never seen before and saw the perfect crib.  I bought it, took it home, and put it together.  Stephanie cried when she saw it, but it gave her hope and revived her spirit.  The crib went into storage, and we headed for the US.

    After a month or so treating her preeclampsia, and discarding any danger of placenta previa, and only two weeks after I made it to the States, Sienna arrived.  She weighed only 4lbs, and half an ounce, but she was beautiful, and mostly healthy.  Five weeks later, we took her home, and began the wonderful task of travelling around the country with a newborn.  Yes, she had three big sisters to help, but it was no "furlough". Sienna's schedule was all out of whack.  We'd get her sleeping through the night, then we'd travel all day for a meeting a couple states away.  Of course, she would sleep all day in the van, and promptly forget that she needed to sleep when the rest of us did.  When she was not sleeping in her car seat, it was a pack-n-play.  Oh, that we were in Peru, where she could sleep in a real crib with a soft mattress!  ...and with a schedule!

    Soon enough, with 5-month-old Sienna in our arms, we headed back to Peru.  Since we left our truck with a friend of ours in Huancayo, we still have a vehicle to get around in; but it only seats five.  We are now six.  So, now, we must sell the truck.  And with no home to go to, the church has allowed us to set up house in the parsonage.  (Makes sense since I am the pastor.)  The problem is that the parsonage is not habitable yet.  The floors are unfinished, the walls unpainted, the kitchen and bathrooms uninstalled.  So basically, we are living in a few Sunday School rooms.  On purpose, we left the school books, the dishes, and the beds as the last things packed into storage.  When we arrived, they were the easiest things to get out.  I am writing this blog on our old mattress that is laid out on the floor.  From here, I can see about ten suitcases overflowing, a small space heater, and a huge window with cardboard and paper taped up to keep out the sun and to give me some privacy.  What? You expected curtains before the floor was put in?  My poor wife has to cook on a small two-burner stove that we borrowed from a church member.  My three older girls are doing school work in the front room/dining room/kitchen/storage room....

    I set up Kaitlynn's, Alyssa's, and Savanna's beds in one of the Sunday School rooms, and Stephanie and I were to share a room with Sienna.  Well, I got a bad cold, partly from the change in climate, mostly from my lack of sleep.  Stephanie is doing a great job getting Sienna BACK on schedule.  She does have a new crib to make things more comfortable.  But my body could not wait.  At night, I was restless and would keep Stephanie up.  Sienna would cry and keep me up.  We decided that for the sake of health and sanity, I should take the big cold room with all the suitcases, and Stephanie should take the smaller room with Sienna.  I love my wife, and I love Sienna; but I'm really enjoying my sleep right now!  My girls have their own set of problems. The bed frames are old and the wood slats that hold the mattresses up are just short enough to slip out of place when one of the girls is sitting or sleeping on the bed.  Since Savanna was on the bottom level of the bunk-bed she shared with Alyssa, she decided to sleep on the floor to avoid being smacked in the face at night by a falling bed board.  And although we have restrooms just outside our rooms, the shower is downstairs next to the auditorium.  Once again, there is no flooring put in yet, and the shower head is what we call a "widow-maker".  It has a small electric head that heats the water up just as it comes out of the pipes.  It does a good job heating the water, but if you try to adjust the pressure by grabbing the metal faucet handle, you are reminded that you live in a country with 220v electricity.  Standing naked under a shower, being zapped by a faucet is not a very pleasant way to get clean.  I've just decided to boycott showers altogether.  I mean, if that's the price to pay, then cleanliness is overrated.

    Anyway, as I began to count all the problems I was having, I thought about our upcoming Christmas pageant.  We haven't even decided on the drama yet, but I am beginning to gather some songs and ideas.  I came across a very interesting truth in one of the carols we sing every Christmas.  "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed."  I thought, "How fitting.  We should make this year's focus on the humble beginnings of Christ as the incarnate Word of God."  I think we can empathize, however so slightly, with Jesus' being put to rest in such an uncomfortable environment.  Even when I was a child, when my mother would correct me for leaving the door open by saying "We're you born in a barn?," I always wanted to respond, "Yep. Me and Jesus both."

    Now, I am sure that Mary did everything she could to make that feeding trough comfortable for her little One, but it was not the ideal place for the birth of the King, the Messiah.  Well, ...at least, not as we may imagine.  For we know that God picked out the PERFECT place for his Word to be born.  Although we may certainly prefer a more comfortable, respectable place, interestingly, God preferred the stable, the smells, and the company JUST as it was.  Jesus left his throne for a manger and His glory for the cross,  What a wonderful Saviour!

    As for us here in Peru, we found a fairly big house about a half an hour away from our church.  Now, that is a long way when everyone else could practically walk to church, but the house is almost ideal.  The kitchen is a little small, and the house is colder than we would like, but the YARD!!  Having an 8,500 ft2 yard in Huancayo is almost unheard of.  We could host many church fellowships out on the patio.  We could raise rabbits and guinea pigs.  You know,... for lunch.  Many things about the house is just what we wanted.  But, alas, the owner does not want to give us the whole house, just the first and second floor.  She and her husband come to Huancayo once in a while from Lima and need a place to stay.  Well, we like our privacy.  We are not likely to stay where we have to share the house with the owner; so as for now, we are staying in the church.

    Just this morning, my wife said, "If that house is not what the Lord wants us to have, He must have a bigger, better one out there somewhere."  Oh, me of little faith!  But when I consider the Lord of Glory coming to earth and celebrating His birth with Mom, Mom's husband, and a few shepherds in that unwelcoming stable, I am thankful for the accommodations that we DO have.  After all, at least we have a crib!