Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s currently December 26th, KST*. I’m sitting in the English office in my school, wearing this new “CANADA” sweater my parents sent me for Christmas via my best friend who came to visit me for the occasion – an awesome friend indeed!

*at time of writing, not posting

It’s been an awesome Christmas too! I still got to take part in some celebrations back home via various video calling software, and I got to have some stuffing and potatoes and gravy. I got to hang up stockings, watch my Christmas lights flicker while viewing a Christmas movie and leave a modest mess of wrapping paper as I opened some gifts (thanks to my parents who decided to wrap anything and everything they were sending to me, whether it was maple cookies or a box of KD).

It’s been an interesting Christmas. I got to have a Christmas I’d never had before. The window was open for quite some time on Christmas morning because of the agreeable temperature. There were no other family members present this holiday, but one who basically already is. There are still gifts back home in Canada from other friends and family that I will open when I return in March. There was no snow. The building being studiously built across the street was, well, still being built on Christmas day. I ate chicken instead of turkey. I played a traditional Korean game, 윷놀이 (Yutnori), along with the classic that is Dutch Blitz when we visited another fellow Canadian for dinner and games.

And…there were some moments my brain and my heart were certainly trying to reconcile, particularly nearing the end of the night. That was when both my social energy and my emotional energy were wearing a bit thinner. That was when my Christmas joy and homesickness and joy from my friend’s presence were all mixing together even more. That was when my friend told me, “How about you go into that room and journal for a bit, and I’ll be in this room?” That was when I said, “Okay,” wondering how I didn’t think of that myself. That was when I was incredibly thankful I had my most kindred spirit on hand to crush with hugs. That was when I was super filled with deep thanks that I had this gift of a friend around this Christmas.

And this was, perhaps, the Christmas when I have focused the most on the biggest gift I’ve received from this special holiday. And no, it’s not my awesome new sweater nor my aforementioned friend.

If you guessed the reason for the season, that babe in the manger, the gift that keeps on giving – AKA Jesus – then you guessed right.

This was, perhaps, the Christmas when I focused on Him the most.

Funny how that works, eh?

Take away all (or at least some) of what we usually consider Christmas, and what do you have left? What is there that can never be removed by time or space? Yup. Same answer: Jesus.

Yup. Same answer: Jesus.

And that’s what I re-realized. Again.

Re-realizations usually make me re-focus on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely.

So I did. I tried to focus on Him more. I embraced Him even more.

That night I was reading an article on how the wise men surrendered their gifts to Jesus when they came to see Him, and I thought, “That’s what I will do too: use this day and time to conscientiously surrender my life and my gifts to Him – again.”

And really, that’s the main thing I want to do this coming year. Sure, I want other things, too, that are important and good – but it’s not the same. This one thing is a top-tier thing. If I can do this thing, this ‘continued surrender and giving Him my gifts which He has first given me,’ thing, then 2017 will be a year that kickstarts even better years. Better, because they’ll be around Him.

I want to give Him my words and my writing even more, to give Him my ability to teach and extend myself to others. And I want to give Him my nerdiness/geekiness, because I’ve come to think of that as a gift too, after a friend suggested as much to me. This coming year, I want – even more – to gift Him all those things that help to make up “Adina.”

Speaking of 2017, I don’t imagine I’ll be writing here again until the New Year.

I’d share with you a New Years Resolution if I had one, but all I have right now is a Jesus-Resolution: Keep re-gifting the gifts He’s already given me.

That’s the best kind of re-gifting, don’t you think?