When I was growing up, celebrating Jesus’ birthday was a big deal at our house. Though we had little use for the commercial aspects of Christmas, it was all about abundance: good food, lots of family, and lots of chances to show generosity to others.
Facing the holidays when I was thousands of miles from home — and in a country that hardly acknowledges Christmas — was a challenge I dreaded at first.
But into that quiet came some unexpected blessings:
When I get home from Christmas shopping in Jerusalem, it is almost sunset on the first day of Hanukkah. Excitement kindles inside me as I set my tree-shaped menorah in an arched living room window and light the first candle.
I curl up on the couch and watch it glow quietly all evening long.
Here, where the dimly burning wick of the Jewish nation was miraculously kept burning, here God came to be with us. …
Pause.
And calmly think of that.
Elisabeth Adams 