Christmas in July

The Season of Advent always renews my sense of “hope” no matter what challenges I’m personally encountering. The other day, I was reminded of my Christmas in July experience when my 6 year old daughter shared a book she wrote and illustrated for me. On one page, she had copied the first stanza of Emily Dickson’s poem “‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers”.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all –

This poem stirred the feeling of hope that had perched in my soul during the St. Pauls mission trip to Cuba this July.

I found Cuba to be complex and confusing. It is a place where food is rationed (2 chicken breast/person/week) and cafés post a full menu but only have ham and cheese sandwiches to serve. The bulk of the once beautiful buildings, are crumbling and should be condemned but instead are overcrowded due to the Havana housing shortage. Yet, despite these and more “challenges” the people we met emanated a hope that was almost palpable.

Daily, we were blessed to experience amazing music that initially my monolingual brain processed as tunes without words. But over the course of the week, this powerful music filled every place of worship we visited and gained in intensity. I realized it was not stopping because it was rooted in God’s love and grace that filled our hosts and their congregations’ hearts. The same feeling that usually takes Christmas to renew in me - they experience and celebrate even on the hottest of July days with no air conditioning in a crowed storefront church.

I left Cuba feeling so blessed by my time there and so thankful to know a God that can inspire hope that strong despite the all perceived hardships. My “things with feathers” for you, whatever your struggles this season, is that God’s love will inspire and remind you that all things are possible through Christ.

Merry Christmas!