The tradition on the Erickson side of the family is to enjoy a huge smörgasbord on either Christmas Eve or the night before. Although the spread of food is wonderful, the real blessing of this gathering is to be with family. As we enjoy our first Guatemalan Christmas, we will definitely be missing this family event. We will, however, be trying our best to reconstruct this feast with a bit of Guatemalan flavor. The search for some specific ingredients has been a bit of a challenge.

Now before you start feeling bad for us, I’d like to share with you a note of encouragement that we got just today. This was an email from a close friend who understands what it is like to be away from family at Christmas. After relating his past Christmases to our current one, he challenged us to see God’s hand in our being in Guatemala and then closed with this exhortation:

…So be excited this Christmas for the privilege of sacrificing your little picture for God’s bigger picture.You are doing the right thing, you are in God’s hands and will. You are where you need to be and would be miserable if you were not because you would be out of His will. We do and will miss you, but it will only be for a moment of time. I’ll be spending billions of Christmases with you in just a matter of time. When that happens we will laugh together at the little tiny Christmases that we missed!

I’m honored when God uses good friends to speak truth into my life. I’ll probably be rereading this email a few times this week.

(Todd)