12 Pearls of Christmas: He is Always Enough

The
Christmas of 2006 we were homeless. We didn't have keys. Not to a car,
not to a home. We'd flown halfway around the world, leaving behind a
ministry we toiled over. Much, particularly in our hearts, lay in ruins.

Some
friends had a camp, and on that camp stood a barn. In the corner of the
barn was a tiny apartment, flanked by this caboose and hundreds of
acres of Texas pasture. We'd never been there before, so we followed
directions at night, making plenty of wrong turns.

When we found
the place, we drove a borrowed car over the cattle guard toward what
would be our home for a month. String lights illuminated a small porch,
a window and a door in the corner of an aluminum-sided barn. We hefted
large pieces of luggage to the apartment.

And when we opened the door, Love welcomed us.

The
place, usually completely unfurnished in the winter, was decked out
with just the right amount of beds, couches and tables. The pantry was
full. We had dishes and garbage cans, and cups and forks and food. But
even more, we had a Christmas tree. Friends had hijacked the place,
decorating it for Christmas. Cookies preened on the table.

I
will never, ever forget that Christmas. We had so little. We felt the
painful burden of failure. But we were loved, so terribly and
wonderfully loved.

Christmas felt right there, in a barn. We
heard the nickering of horses, the meowing of kittens, the clop of
hooves against the barn floor. Chickens and goats and cows served as a
holy object lesson of the incarnation. Although we were warm and
clothed, we understood more keenly the Savior's homelessness, how He
left the splendor of heaven for the sodden earth. We experienced
barnyard life alongside him, without much to call our own except our
Heavenly Father and our sweet family.

He was enough, that Christmas. And He will always will be.

Mary DeMuth writes fiction and nonfiction. Her latest book, A Slow Burn released in October and she has a memoir entitled Thin Places coming out in February of 2010. You can meet her: http://www.marydemuth.com, http://www.thewritingspa.com, on Facebook and Twitter!