They Chose Joy in a World of Darkness
Christmastime is the time to be extremely happy, right? We all try to hold onto that giddiness and magic we had as children when we become adults, but sometimes life wears us down. This year's Christmas in the U.S. after three months in Italy added some culture shock to my experience. Jet lag mixed with a highly commercial culture and fast food economy was making me nauseous the first few days back home in Missouri. My saving grace was my family and the time I could spend with them away from mainstream society. But Christmas wasn’t easy. Meeting my sister’s boyfriend had its bumps, and watching how my grandfather struggled with his dementia broke my heart. Wasn’t Christmas supposed to be all bliss like the good old days? But then I remembered how Christmas happened those 2,000 years ago, and it was anything but bliss. It was a hot, dirty, messy, depressing and tyrannically violent world for the Jews in the Roman Empire, so happiness was far and fleeting. A people
