Twice a year we have to take our car for an emissions inspection. Our latest turn to do it was November/December. So the Friday before Christmas we took it to the same place we always take it to get inspected, knowing it was in great shape. Our little 2004 Stratus has about 50,000 kilometers on it, so we knew it should pass without any problems. We were wrong.
They did the normal prodding and running it through the machine, and when they finished, the guy told me that it didn’t pass. When I asked what it was, he said, “It could be anything.” I was (to put it nicely) very upset. They couldn’t tell me why my car failed inspection, and they told me I had to take it to a mechanic and get it re-inspected by the 31st of December. That would be a problem for me since I was planning on driving it to Oaxaca for the camp that week.
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The other day I asked my Facebook friends what was their favorite memory of 2011. I got a lot of great answers, and I went back to look for some of my favorite memories of 2011. I was upset because I realized that I didn’t document on the blog very well what was, in fact, my favorite memory of 2011.
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“Wa-Hock-a” is how you pronounce the name of the Mexican state that I visited this week (it’s spelled Oaxaca). I was speaking at a youth camp for the Baptist churches of the region.
Saul, the youth leader who invited me to speak at the camp, graduated last year from the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary and is leading a certificate in youth ministry program in his city of Puerto Escondido.
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On Christmas Eve our kids were being so bad that I wrote on Facebook:
“I hope Santa isn’t watching because my kids should be on the naughty list.”
Santa Claus is an interesting character. He rewards your good behavior and gives you coal (or worse) for bad behavior. He has little elves who help check up on children to see if they should be on the nice list or on the naughty list. Santa is a fun little story, and a great tool for parents to get their kids to behave during November and December, but it’s nothing like the story of Jesus.
The Jesus Christmas story puts us all on the naughty list. The beauty of this story is that, despite the fact that we are ALL on the naughty list, the gift of Jesus was for every single one of us. Nobody would make the “nice list” if it depended on our own merit. We are all naughty. We don’t deserve anything from God, which is why the incarnation is so incomprehensible.
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We’ve been busy baking cookies and other goodies today for Christmas. Check out Janell’s recipes on her blog and share some of your favorite recipes.
