Rev. Rachel Fitch
A family friend texted my mom recently saying she is praying for my husband and me as we prepare for the upcoming birth of our child, praying for the joy of new birth and for the bits of uncertainty that currently exist in the world. She wrote that she couldn’t help but think of all the uncertainty that Mary and Joseph were sitting with.
This family friend did assure us that she would happily come visit us in Egypt if, perhaps, we choose to head there. All joking aside, I have been sitting with her words and reflecting differently this season. Yes, our little family is preparing for the birth of a baby. The Godly Play questions of how Mary might have felt feel a little more real this year – joyous, worried, tired, achy, wondering, hoping, curious, in awe … we can only imagine.
And, yet, we also think of the uncertainty that faced this Holy Family. We know of the questions that must have surrounded Mary and Joseph as her pregnancy began to show. We know of Joseph’s worries and of the angel’s visiting, of his trusting and following.
So often I think of their uncertainties clearing up and of the pure joy of Christ’s birth, that all is in place. I fail to think of the uncertainties in which this family still sits – their family is now in danger, they aren’t to return home, but to go to Egypt. Where will they live? What will their community look like so far from family and home? How will they make ends meet? Too often I fail to reflect on the whole of the story. I don’t know about you, but as I think about all the facets of what we know Mary, Joseph, and Jesus went through in those early days and, I’m sure, of the many we don’t know of, I cannot help but feel a deeper sense of hope. Jesus, incarnate, with us in every way. Jesus, incarnate, making it such that there is no place that we can go, nothing we
can do or not do, that separates us from God’s love for us.
Amid the unimaginable joy and the unimaginable uncertainty, the Christ Child’s light shone – like the star in the sky that drew the shepherds and led the magi. It drew people to him, it drew people to His Father, the God of Israel, the true God. Amid the uncertainty, God sent his son, born and dwelling among us, love poured out.
As we sit – preparing, wondering, and waiting for our child, there is so much joy. I also look around and, in our congregation, our community, and our world, it feels like there are so many questions, so much that feels uncertain. It brings me joy and deep hope as we have celebrated Christ’s birth and as we celebrate the Christmas season, knowing that amid this preparing, wondering, waiting, and uncertainty, God sent his son. In the uncertainty that you, too, may be feeling or experiencing in this time, I invite us to look to the manger. To look to the models of faith that have come before us in Mary and in Joseph and the ways that God is with them in each step. To look to the love incarnate, born amid uncertainty, a reminder of God’s faithful and everlasting love, God’s work in the world in which all is changed. To look to “the dawn from on high [which] will break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:78-79).
In this Christmas season, I ask that we pray for each other, for those who are sitting in uncertainty, that all might glimpse the hope and light of Christ. I ask that we pray for those who are without a home or a safe place to sleep and for those, like Christ’s family, who have had to flee their nations in search of safety and asylum, we pray for the love of Christ to surround them.
In Hope and Joy,
Rachel
