by Carrie Tedder

Windows with views of God's splendor and windows with views of God's heart, my eyes bear the burden of both landscapes. One window shows off the magnificence of jagged mountain peaks where the winter snow of Christmas blankets dark green Colorado pine forests. The low sun highlights the soft white bark of aspen groves and icy meadow grasses frozen in place. This view of God's splendor is easy on my eyes. It is here that I want to stay. It is in the place of creation's finery that worship comes easy. Within this landscape I understand my insignificance which brings about a strange sense of comfort. Here I understand that God is God and I am mere dust. And yet as soon as the holiday season is over, my family and I will return to our other view - our home in China.

The view out that 22nd floor window shows the crushed humanity of Beijing's twenty million residents where concrete buildings rise up from the ground like stalagmites in a cave. The air is polluted and gray and CS Lewis' description of 'always winter but never Christmas' is scarily appropriate this time of year. But it is this view that allows me to see God's heart and why Christ came to earth. It is here I want to stay. It is in this place of beautiful faces and lost lives that I understand God's longing for man.

I pray that this Christmas you will find moments of splendor. Maybe it will come in the twinkle of a beautiful tree or in the taste of luxurious pudding or in the melody of a carol sung. I pray that those moments will refuel you and cause you to worship. I also pray that as your view changes, and it will, to the harshness of the fallen world, that there too you will experience God's heart and your mission.

For unto us a child is born, a son is given.

Happy Christmas.