From the title you’ve probably gathered that the blog is Christmas-themed and you might be thinking that it’s pretty late. To be fair I have previously kept Christmas trees up way past their due date, but I promise this isn’t like that. I had initially planned on releasing something on the 25th but couldn’t coherently gather my thoughts in time. But the credit has to go to Julius Caesar and his calendar for giving me a 12-day extension, since Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on 7th January. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17

I wanted to mention a story that I heard that really touched me. It was about a man who went to visit an extremely impoverished village in Egypt called the Mokattam. The people that live there are known as the “Zabbaleen” which is a word that literally means “garbage people”. This is because the neighbourhood serve as Cairo’s informal garbage collectors, handling up to a third of all of Cairo’s rubbish. Houses are filled with garbage, not because of some hoarding disorder, but because it’s how people make their livelihood by manually sifting it for consumption, recycling and disposal.

I was listening to a story about a man who went to visit the village and met an elderly lady in her home. The visitor described that the first time he saw “Um Girgis” (the elderly lady) she was sat on the floor with her legs crossed amidst the rubbish, beaming with a huge smile on her face. He recalled being overwhelmed at the sight of this woman who was in the most treacherous of conditions but was smiling with an exuberance that made it appear as if she was shining. He asked her why she looked so happy and she told him that it was because today was the first day in years that she would be able to bake bread for her neighbours, as she had just received an oven. There were some extremely impoverished families that she deeply desired to serve by baking bread for them. Today this desire had been fulfilled and nothing could make her happier. The man wept.

Her existence was for the sustenance and life of the world around her. She was surrounded by heaps of garbage yet that seemed to disappear at the thought of being able to provide bread to those in desperate need. Arguably, she couldn’t have been in worse conditions, but her only concern was not about herself. 

Across so many cultures for thousands of years, bread has been the most basic and important part of the human diet. Some people may only live on bread - it is the most essential form of nourishment. Wikipedia informed me that bread is often referred to as “the staff of life”. Um Girgis in her provision of bread almost becomes a staff of life for those around her.

In the Nativity Story, Jesus is wrapped in swaddling cloths and surrounded by livestock. This is the normal setting of an ordinary peasant family’s birth. He is born in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew literally means the “house of bread”. All the Jews had been eagerly awaiting the Messiah’s arrival through the several prophecies concerning His coming. One of these outlines His birthplace to be in Bethlehem of Judea and the Jewish scholars had known this for 500 years. (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:5-6) He is born in a trough that would hold usually hold the food of animals. He comes to be the sustenance and life of the world – the staff of life – the “bread of life”. His deepest desire is to share His own life with ours. 

The life of Um Girgis resembles the life of Christ.

“33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:33-35)

What a wonderful celebration Christmas is. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas if celebrating it today and a great start to 2022.