Pre-Christmas Gift Exchanges

The bustle of the holiday season has once again dawned upon us. Even though over here in the Czech Republic they do not traditionally celebrate either of the first of the holidays on the American calendar, my fellow ex-patriots and I have been toiling diligently to change that fact.

All Hallows’ Eve arrived first. Now, this holiday is not one unknown to the Europeans. However, instead of gathering with friends around miniature princesses and goblins, the Czechs pilgrimage with their families to the graves of their ancestors and pass the day sprucing them up and remembering those gone before. In a way, it seems to be a silent protest against those who would wish to rewrite the history books in order to lessen the turmoil that has engulfed this region for decades. It is a refusal to deny their past. At the same time however, there exists a great push not to remain stuck in what has gone before. And so it was with eager smiles that the Czechs and other international students swapped holidays with us. In exchange for us learning about All Saint’s Day, we attempted to share a little about Halloween. Step one: everyone had to knock and give the proper Halloween greeting for trick-or-treating in order to enter. (Needless to say, the chant that rolls off the tongues of toddlers back in the States took some practice for our foreign friends for whom many English is a second language.) Then, it was over to the pumpkins: scrapping out the gooey seeds, designing scary faces, and brandishing the carving knives. Lightening these at midnight, we culminated the evening by dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with homemade cider in our “zombie” hands. If the fact that those who took the pumpkins home kept them for two extra weeks says anything, I think it was overall a success that we can expect to glimpse popping up throughout Germany, Turkey, Australia, Spain, Poland, and of course the Czech Republic in the years to come.

Unknowingly, we had created a great demand for the holidays to arrive and since, Christmas was still a ways, we decided to attempt a Czech Thanksgiving. After all, the pilgrims were European, right? We figured they wouldn’t mind… Anyways, after an evening of food and festivities enjoyed with the family of friends God has given me here, everyone went home adorned with crafted turkey and pilgrim hats covering sleepy eyes that were closing as their full bellies set in.

Such cultural exchanges have been continuous here, living in a foreign country surrounded by hundreds of other international students from every spot your finger could find to land were you to spin a globe blindfolded. They go beyond grand celebrations and holiday evenings. For instance, this week, the Czechs and the Americans swapped celebrities. The latter presented a thirty minute version of what it means to be an American before all of the international students while attempting to include facets beyond the stereotypes and images that have preceded our personal voyages across the great pond. In exchange, the Czechs introduced us to the President of their country Václav Klaus. Though the Americans received the far better gift in this swap, we are determined not to give up. The holidays have only begun. Many more cultural white elephant swaps are bound to come. And, thankfully, the greatest gift this season defies being defined by any single culture. In such a swap as this, it is one life for another. Yet, once again we come out having received the far better end, knowing that we gave nothing but rubbish in exchange for everything of value.

When It's Storming Outside

Yesterday, as I rolled over on the couch I have learned to call my bed, I glanced out the window much as a groundhog peeks out of his hole. Gazing from our relative perches, we both desire to see what the weather holds for us. If things look ominous and chilly, I, like the groundhog, roll back over to wait in hopes my fortunes will change. But yesterday, I just stared. Great white things were pouring from solid white above and falling to whiteness below. It took me, a snow-virgin Southerner, a moment to realize what was going on. Brno was experiencing her first snow of the season.

Now as fun and lovely as this may sound, it does have me quite a bit worried as we are only in the first week of November. Nonetheless, the time for snowstorms has come. And such white masses are not the only storms rolling through right now. Across the great pond, South Carolina has seen one cloud her skies this past week too. She is walking head down, shoulders hunched struggling as the pellets pour down. Grieving and questioning are racking my campus. It is an awful time. In such immense grief, though, we know that we are neither the first nor the last who will face such tragedies. Last year, it was Virginia Tech. Tomorrow, it could be at home. We live in a world that has fallen among fallen people. While it is fallen, it is not random. We know that “the God who controls the wheeling galaxies and who spoke before the foundation of the world must be the God who holds the smallest circumstances of [our lives] in His hands. We are encompassed on all sides by the Almighty. ‘His tender mercies are over all His works,’ ‘steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord,’ and ‘underneath are the Everlasting Arms.’ Over, around, underneath. We are enfolded ” (Elisabeth Elliot).

Our God is in charge and His will is being fulfilled. When we read what we acknowledge as the “Good News,” the snow and rains almost drip out of the pages. Storms are everywhere. Yet as the centurion recognizes through faith as his daughter lay dying, every storm is obedient to the command of the Ruler of all just as his soldiers unquestionably obeyed earthly orders. In Job, Elihu declares, “He [God] loads the thick cloud with moisture; He scatters the cloud of His lightening. And it is turned round about by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands then upon the face of the habitable earth. Whether it be for correction or for His earth [generally] or for His mercy and loving-kindness.”

They look different. They consist of different things. But God is the Supreme Creator of all, and He is over each of these storms. Storms are often the very place we hear Him the clearest; they are the opener for the concert of His voice. For in tragedy, knees crumple to the floor in anguish. The only other instance in which we see mankind universally hitting their knees is in a posture of subservience. And thus we hit our knees to pray. There we recognize our unworthiness and seek the face of the Father. This is not a coincidence. During tragedies, we are already on our knees in a posture of obedience and humbleness. Knowing we are not enough and will never be. Knowing He is and always has been and always will be. That is why the God of all, the God over every storm came and faced them in the greatest way possible. That is why He died on the cross. So that He could cloak our unworthiness in His worthiness, and thus covered, we rise with Him to a new life beyond this fallen one now. This is the same God who commands the lightening and thunder. This is the God I serve, and the God who loves you so much He died for you before you could ever recognize what He was doing and knowing you could never express appropriate thanks. This is the God who longs for you to know Him. His name is Jesus. It is Him we praise in and out of storms, knowing in Him we have nothing to fear.

Remember, we have a God who has been known to sometimes quiet the waves of the storms and sometimes to set foot and walk on them.