I looked down at my hands. “Not again,” I thought. Big, black spots of soot stained my palms after I added more coal to the stove to keep it going. It seemed new and exciting in the beginning; a coal stove right in our apartment in order to keep warm in the winter in eastern Ukraine. But that was before we knew what it was like to carry heavy buckets of coal to the third floor, before I knew that smoke would often fill our kitchen, and before I knew that the smell would stay in my nostrils and towels and curtains. “Why doesn’t this city just have a central heating system like the rest of the cities in this country?” I complained as I unsuccessfully tried to wipe my hands clean.  

I looked out the window at the blackened building and the dumpsters that had been overflowing with garbage for the past two weeks, causing piles of “little landfills” that people attempted to dodge on their way to the street. Unwillingly, my thoughts took me back to life in the big city, where the sea is a few minutes away by car and beautiful sunsets fill the horizon. And then further back to life in the States, where I would sit behind the wheel of my very own car and go just about anywhere my heart desired… 

Sighing, I turned from the window and my eyes wandered to the Christmas decorations I had yet to take down. 

And I stopped. 

The manger scene and lights reflecting “peace on Earth” had never spoken to me louder than now, because while my fleshly desires caused me to wallow in self-pity, the King of the World stepped down from His throne in heaven to bring joy and never-ending peace to a shattered and broken world. 

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38 

Christ sacrificed the glory and splendor of heaven; and, right now, He’s giving me the opportunity to live life denying some earthly pleasures so that others would come to understand His sacrifice. 

Truth is, it’s not a sacrifice on my part; it’s a privilege. 

A privilege to serve and love and give to the One who has given His all.