Christmas on the Farm

We’re celebrating Christmas on the farm this year. It’s the farm where I grew up. We lived for many years in the suburbs. Now we’ve lived the last 4 years right in the bigger city. We love the buzz of urban life: the busy downtown, the great shops and restaurants, the constant people-watching.

But being here on the farm at Christmas brings me back. The pace is slower. The people are friendly. Neighbors plow snow for neighbors. You see the stars at night in all their brilliance. You see the glow of the moon on the snow covered fields.

The men gather in town for coffee in the morning. The weekly newspaper contains stories like Mrs. Gustafson had coffee with Mrs. Johnson last Wednesday.

Christians gather on Sunday in the small country church to sing hymns, listen to a simple message from the preacher and make small talk in the church entry before getting into their cars and pickups to go home.

Sure, the culture has come to the country. They have satellite TV. They use cell phones. Some have bought Harleys.

But life is good. Relationships are important. Values are strong.

Jesus was born in a small town. Bethlehem was a distant afterthought a few miles outside Jerusalem. At Christmas we sing about this little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. Jesus was raised in a small town. Though Nazareth was on a trade route, not much happened there. Even one of Jesus potential disciples questioned whether anything good could come out of there.

Jesus did the customary pilgrimages to the big city: Jerusalem. But normally he kept to the out of the way places around the Galilee region. He often went out of his way off the beaten path into Transjordan, into the barren wilderness.

Yet even in the dark streets of Bethlehem God shined His everlasting light. In my small rural community, I found Christ. Our little country church made sure young people had opportunity to know Christ personally and grow into a deeper relationship with Him.

In this small rural community, there was a revival. I received my call to ministry at that time. Others of my friends were awakened to give their lives to Christ. In that quiet farmscape, God’s love and grace were very real. We didn’t have Christian TV, a Christian bookstore or maga-churches. Just godly pastors, loving and nurturing parents, great Christian kids to strengthen our faith.

So with all the rush of living in the city, I’m unusually content this Christmas to be in a quiet, slow, simple place, population 833, much like where Jesus grew up.

As the writer of Proverbs noted that we’re not to despise small beginnings, we too need to realize that greatness comes out of the most unexpected places. God has not chosen the rich or the wise or the important. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 1.