by Natalie Heimann
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
–Galatians 5:1
Christmas of 1985 found me living thousands of miles away from my small-Texas home as an exchange student in Denmark. Holiday preparations and celebrations were in full-swing in the weeks leading up the Christmas. My host family had hosted a party for friends and family where we crafted traditional Danish decorations for the tree. Gifts had been mailed to the U.S. for my family. I had learned all the carols in a language I had only been speaking for five months. The season was awash with “hygge” – a proud Danish mindset of warmth and coziness. And yet, I was melancholy. For all the candlelit parties with my new people, I still felt I was missing something.
As an 18-year-old, away from home and allowed to make most of my own decisions, I realized I was homesick for not only my parents and siblings and friends back in the United States – I was homesick for my church. I had just spent five months in this new country, and the only time I had entered a church was because someone was giving me a tour of the beautiful, ancient cathedrals for which Danes are so proud. Unfortunately, very few Danes actually worshipped in those cathedrals, however, and I was choosing to follow their lead. Now, however, as I struggled to lift out of the blue funk in which I found myself, I discovered I was missing being in community with other Christians in worship. The following Sunday, I trudged alone through the snow to the “gammel Danske kirke” (old Danish church) in my tiny host town to worship with eight elderly ladies, and felt truly at peace for the first time that Advent.
In Galatians, we hear that Christ – that baby Jesus for whom we wait – has set us free. We frequently think of this freedom as being free from something, but it also means we are free for something. We are free to choose to live in a relationship with Jesus. We are free to serve others. And we are free to live in the grace and love which God gifted us in the Child in the manger.