Christmas in the Carribean

Spending this week in Vieques (a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico) with my family, I have started to realize how much the media and society pushes the commercial view of Christmas. As I woke up this morning, no snow on the ground, no Christmas tree, no exorbitant pile of needless crap wrapped in gaudy paper and it made me feel like this was... Thursday... nothing more. Nothing is different from any other day here, the waves are still playing tag with the shoreline, the birds still float in the air like kites and the sun continues to play peek-a-boo with the clouds. Other than the "Contemporary Holiday Hits" playing on the Sirius XM Radio there is no sign of Christmas, no sign of commemorating the birth of Christ, no Three Kings, no Angel of the Lord appearing to shepherds watching their flock, no plastic nativity scene with Joseph wearing a pink sash. Nothing.

I have always been in a setting where Christmas (well, the commercial representation of it anyway) dominated everything from Thanksgiving until the we discard the season on the curb with the rest of the trash on December 26th. This year is different, strip away the glitz and hubbub drummed up by societal pressures to buy into yet another superficial season and all you have is life. Unchanged, unfazed, unabashed life.

I have never felt closer to the true meaning of Christmas.

Although I hate cliche's like that, I will stomach it for this example. Life goes on uninterrupted, God goes on as He always has, since the moment in the Mountains of the Middle East where Moses' inquiry elicits a response from God. "Tell them 'I am' has sent you". God tells Moses to tell his people that the One who has always been and always will be has sent him.

Amazing.

God always has been and always will be. Just like the waves on the beach, a seemingly endless ebb and flow. A constant song in the background, a timeless reminder that like the movements of the ocean, God is. God was. God will always be.