Your will not mine
The Road to Bethlehem
I want to imagine that on the road, heavy with child, being pulled by an uncomfortable donkey, towards an uncertain future. A road that is full of sorrow, but also joy, mixed with wonder and hope, darkness and light.
The road to Bethlehem, carrying the Christ child, back home, to the root of Jesse, to the beginning of it all.
The stable full of animals and manure and hay and the noise of gentle munching of food, beating and braying and shaking tails, flicking off flies. But it is warm and it is dry and it is a dark safe space. Like the shepherd in the fields lambing, so the lamb of the world enters in. Quietly, one dark, still night, with a star shining brotherly above the place where he lay.
I want you to think 2000 years ago, which are but a flash of a falling star, in the eyes of the Creator. The Triune God allowed the light to enter into the darkness, knowing the darkness, but still coming, saying as Mary did, not my will but yours.
A Jewish baby, born into a world of tormoil and occupation, of hostility and uncertainty. Choosing a life of service, the humble work of a carpenter, to be part of our family, to have an earthly father, as well as a heavenly one. And to open the way for you and for me today and every day, to have the same.
Perhaps you have no family around you this Christmas? Perhaps you have had the pleasure and privilege of having a long loving set of parents who are no longer on this earth, perhaps you have not. Perhaps you have had bad or absent parents and family members and Christmas comes as a painful reminder of that hole, the lacking whole of your life.
Light the candle- defiantly in the dark - cry out - allow Christ to enter into the darkness… By allowing the light of Christ to enter in and embracing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, when we have no other family, we have Christ the child, the holy spirit of love, and the Father of us all, looking down and willing us to walk the path that will lead to our healing and the healing of the world.
Let us wait with baited breath as we go on that journey, the journey of darkness, along the Bethlehem road, but the journey that leads from death to life, from darkness to light and from hate and fear, to love and hope and joy for eternity.
As we end this year, this Christmastide, I end with the words of a Christmas Carol I have sung as a child, that reminds me of my own memories of Christmas candles by Christmas trees, of the wonder of a small frail, helpless child entering the world and bringing the hope and light of God with him.
May God bring you joy, whatever your circumstances, this Christmas and…
Be blessed!
How far is it to Bethlehem? Not very far.
Shall we find the stable there lit by a star?
Can we see the little child is here within?
If we lift the wooden latch, may we go in?
May we stroke the creatures there ox, ass or sheep?
May we peep like them and see Jesus asleep?
If we touch his Tiny hand, will he awake?
Will he know we’ve come so far just for his sake?
Great Kings have precious gifts and we have naught,
Little smiles and little tears are all we brought
For all weary children Mary must weep.
Here, on his bed of straw, sleep children, sleep.
God in his mother’s arms, babe in the byre,
Sleep as they sleep who find their heart’s desire.
By Frances Chesterton the wife of GK Chesterton
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