Even the sun realizes it’s impossible to shine at 5am. With sleepy eyes and dragging feet, I lugged my suitcases, much lighter than when I arrived, down the steps of the little upstairs apartment that has been home for a few days, toward my friends and their car that would take me to the airport. It’s the day to leave. It feels like I’ve been gone longer than the number of days passed would suggest, but it has been a blessed and encouraging time in Cuba. 

It was too dark outside to capture any of the moments passing outside my non-rolling-down window. I would say 74.2% of the pictures I take are from the seat of a car outside a window on our way to the next training or visit. I like capturing moments of real life in the places the Lord takes us. I try to keep my phone balanced on the window sill of the door and subtly snap the shot. Many are blurry, but some bring the life on the side of the road into focus. 

As we drove to the airport we passed a scene that has come to mind often since leaving. On top of a small cement-block home with bars on the windows was a wooden manger covered with rows of Christmas lights. It was maybe 6ft wide and 4ft tall. I’m not a good judge of that kind of thing, but it was not super small. Inside the stable scene where you would expect to see the people of the nativity there where 3ft tall figures made out of hard plastic and fading color with mainly only the red of their clothes still visible. 

It wasn’t Jesus. There was no Mary or Joseph. The only figures inside the stable were two wise men. My assumption is that over the years the other figures must have been broken or lost somehow and had been irreplaceable. My friend told us that for many years there were no Christmas decorations available in the country.  They could only decorate inside churches and, just like their cars, they could only use what Christmas decorations they already had before the revolution.  But on the roof of the home we drove by, even with the figures that were lacking to fulfill the full nativity scene, all of the same care and work of putting up those decorations had been given. They only had two wise men, but they proudly and reverently put those guys up there to shine brightly into the night. Anyone who saw them shining would know the Holy Night and the birth of our Savior that they represent. The people who slept under the roof below made the best and brightest of what they had been given, and their joy multiplied at least to me, and probably to many others.

Taking some liberties with their story here, I imagine their kids and grandkids still loved to see those two wise men lit up in all their faded plastic glory at Christmas. Having come to know more about the heart and the spirit of the Cuban people, I imagine they didn’t take much time to regret the figures that had been lost over the years. I imagine that the contented sigh and thrill of the moment those two light up is still as sweet as it ever was, year after year.

I have been given much and I am missing much. Probably most of anyone reading this could say the same no matter what their nativity scene looks like as people pass by it in cars on the street. But, you guys, at the very least, I certainly have two wise men. Probably most of anyone reading this could say the same. I am so thankful to climb up on the rooftop of the life I’ve been given and string up the lights around the stable and excitedly plug in all I have to shine brightly into the dark to represent the scene of the One I worship and adore. 

Maybe you only have two wise men. Maybe you have two wise men, a donkey, and Mary. Hopefully, you have Jesus. Whatever you have, practice plugging in what is yours and shine brightly.  

After leaving Cuba I met a colleague in Washington D.C. to talk about sharing hope in her country. I would have met her anywhere the Lord made available, but it was here. I’ve always wanted to come here. I had one full day and a few intermittent hours one evening and one morning to plug in my own two wise men and delight in what I have been given. I am so incredibly delighted to have visited here and so incredibly thankful to be on my way home.  Here are a few moments from the past couple of weeks...

Sunrise over OKC.

This is the first church we visited. Their Christmas Pageant was held the night before we began.

The church in Havana.

The night I arrived in D.C. it was snowing.  It was so beautiful!

Arlington National Cemetery

From the Museum of the Bible.

The White House.