This year I have experienced several situations where Christ has managed to make what could be the overly familiar both fresh and meaningful. Last week I went to visit one of the dozen or so folk in our congregation over the age of ninety. She is terribly crippled by arthritis, twisted like an ancient tree. If that isn't enough, strokes have made communication difficult and she has reverted to her childhood Dutch rather than the English she learned after coming to this country following the war. I have visited before but I always feel helpless and awkward. I'm never sure what she is hearing. It must be so frustrating for her.
This time one of her three attentive daughters was present. She speaks Dutch, so "interpreted" some of my comments and questions to her mother. Then I suggested I read the Luke 2 Christmas story and she could translate. I worked my way through the passage, phrase by phrase, which the daughter patiently and creatively repeated in Dutch. It was tricky at points -- she was stumped by "while Quirinius was governor of Syria" -- but her mother nodded and helped out.
God has always reached over and around the barriers so that Good News can be shared.
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