A Global Advent: 25 Stories of God With Us Around the WorldHalimbawa

You’ve spent this Advent season immersed in stories. Stories that transported you across a globe that is full of evidence that God is with us. He is with children, families and communities in real, life-changing ways.

The story of God with us is the essence of the gospel. In fact, the root of the word “gospel” is the Anglo-Saxon word god-spell meaning “good story.” God’s good story brings hope, peace, joy and love into the world one life at a time. It’s a story that is worked out in us and through us.

And on Christmas Day, we remember the good story of God coming to be with us. It comes alive in a new way when we look back over this Advent and see how that story is still in motion all around the world.

A Compassion centre in a local church is nestled in the rolling hills, banana trees and red earth of Uganda’s countryside. This Compassion centre is bustling with energy and buzzing with anticipation as they prepare for their Christmas celebration.

Photo Caption: Children bring the Christmas story to life by performing a play in their church in Uganda.

The children have been rehearsing, reflecting and readying themselves to step into the Christmas story. Costumes have been pulled together, the stage is set, the music selected and dance moves practiced.

For these children, God’s good story has been so real to them, and today is the day they have prepared to celebrate that God is with us.

It will be a day that Talent, a young girl from the centre, will wear the costume of Mary and bring the nativity story to life with her friends.

Photo Caption: "The special thing I did was that I participated in the role-play of Jesus Christ's birth where I acted as Mary,” says Talent.

Children like Darious, Susan, Macbeth, Abel and Leticia will dance the Kikiga traditional dance before their congregation at church. The Kikiga dance is famous in Uganda and is a special dance that people dance at happy times like Christmas Day.

Later, there will be squeals of joy as the kids open their Christmas gifts—for Blessing, a new toy truck, and for Shinah, a baby doll in a pink dress. The chatter of children gathered around the table will be the resounding note of the celebration as they receive a special Christmas meal.

And once the festivities at the church are done, the kids will go home with decorations to put up with their families, like the balloons that Akayesu got to put up with her father. Families will be given life-changing gifts such as the goats, like the ones that Stuart and Markbase’s families received.

Photo Caption: Stuart holds his family’s new goat.

Celebrating Christmas for these children is celebrating God’s good story that changed everything for them. It is a story of God with them—in their hearts and their full bellies, in the joy of receiving special gifts, in their communities and in their homes.

Prayer:

Dear God, the story of Christmas reminds me that You came to be with us. As I have leaned into the stories of children and families across the globe, I have been reminded that You show up in our lives in miraculous and unexpected ways. I've been reminded that there are everyday ways that I can step into Your good story to bring hope, peace, joy and love to a world that needs Your presence. Help me to celebrate and step into Your story today and every day. Amen.