This December – From the notes of an Egyptian Christian

The following is a note from Amy, my sister-in-law. It gives a good description of what this time of year is like in Egypt. Enjoy!

Well, here in Egypt, we don’t celebrate Halloween or even Thanksgiving. But as Egyptians, we do have other significant occasions. Today is the first day of the Muslim Feast, where they celebrate and remember the story of Abraham sacrificing his son. But to them the son he was going to sacrifice was Ishmael, not Isaac. Yesterday streets were full of cows and sheep on their way to be slaughtered.

As Christians, this is a significant day for us where we pray that our brothers and sisters, those “sheep from the other fold” would know who is the real sacrifice, the Lamb of God who was driven as a sheep to slaughter so that He would take away our sins. Every year in our Arab countries, blood is shed for the wrong sacrifice. Many Christians pray on this day, and in some places we have overnight prayers all through the night before the first day of the feast. We pray and intercede for those in darkness, that the light would dawn upon them and they would know and accept the real Lamb of God come to save our fallen and broken lives.

On another more joyful note, we as Christians celebrate the real meaning of Christmas, the Christ Child. We don’t see many outward displays of Christmas around us. The streets aren’t decorated in this Islamic country, though some shops, malls and hotels in Cairo are. But as Christians, this makes it even the more precious to celebrate our Lord and Savior coming to our world in this land (The Middle East where Christ was born). Now what could be more special that that?!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, may earth receive her King!