airplanes from Lego's, log cabin villages with Linkin logs, cakes from mud and a caterpillar farm. i have vivid memories of hours spent with these toys with my brother, sisters and friends. we had a long hallway and we could fill it up fast with all our creations. the caterpillars were also in the long hallway, but not our creations. we fed them leaves and some, a few, butterflies emerged. we wondered, how did this change come about?

when i visit Amelie in Preah Vihear or when she visits me in Phnom Penh, we have lots of fun with her safari animals (i think almost as much fun as Esmé has with her camels!) and she loves having a voice around to make them talk for her. my attempts at giving them thoughts are at best funny, but sometimes we imagine that sixth day of the first week when the creator helped them communicate, what was that like?
part of my job that i love is facilitating discussions, planning and problem solving using simple tools that cut through cultural barriers. one of our projects has been struggling while the manager was out sick for several weeks. to bring us back from floundering our thoughts took on shapes as roots and then branches of a living tree forming why we were here and where we wanted to be. we pondered, are we happy with the way our project "tree" is growing?
as Christmas approached, we stumbled upon the fact that there were quite a few instruments among our church group. before the most we had scrounged up were a flute and violin or two trumpets at a time. for last Sabbath we gathered 21 musicians to accompany Christmas congregational songs. for most of us it had been a long time since we had been part of group and the joy showed in our faces even when taking breaks to recover from the exertion of our part in creating music. yet take away any persons part-time efforts and the sound would have diminished...ADRA staff learned a Khmer lullaby to sing for baby Jesus. the tune was quite a vocal exercise and there were many practice sessions. the tune was one that had to grow on me and still has more room to grow. yet, it was not perfect but i think the "baby" Jesus was pleased - what baby isn't when hearing his Mommy singing love songs to him?
playing music in friend's weddings is another pleasure i enjoy in Cambodia. Rattana's wedding was decorated with flowers everywhere. the normal flamboyant decoration style was transformed into a simply beautiful white wedding with flowers, roses spewing beauty everywhere.
God's gift of His son is all the best of all this - isn't it? God's miracle of creation, following His plan of salvation, working through sinful, imperfect humans, innocently offering love and simply beautiful. and He offers us the same joy of rebirth every day, not just once in a lifetime - true Christmas in our heart all year long...