Dear Mary, Joseph, and The Baby - to be called Jesus
I’ve been thinking about you all often and imagining how you are faring on your journey to Bethlehem.
Mary, I envision your swollen belly weighing you and your donkey down - (I’m hoping you have a ride). Bethlehem is uncharted territory for you, but I picture you sitting astride your beast of burden ramrod straight and stalwart in your commitment to providing a safe haven for your child to enter this world. However, how can you not feel trepidation, if not fear, about what lies ahead?
And, Joseph…what integrity and grit you must have to step into this journey, both physically and emotionally. Those dreams, that angel must have been very convincing and life affirming and your compassion and commitment to Mary must have been so emphatic that you seem to be compelled to just place one foot in front of the other and say, “Let’s go.”
I wonder what your days have been like as you traveled the rutted roads (assuming there were roads the length of your 70-90 mile journey from Nazareth), while Mary, your whole being is jostled in the rhythm of the donkey’s and Joseph, your weathered and worn soles are slapping in time to their beat.
What did you eat? And did you have enough to sustain a very young woman and the infant growing inside of her? (Spoiler alert) - Since I know that your story continues for quite some time, I have to believe that the answer is “yes, enough”.
Bethlehem, that “House of Bread”, a small but active village, must have been filled with other migrants in response to legalized decrees from a government with its own agenda. You have to be weary to the bone, yet you still need to find shelter. Contracting pulsations, Mary, could be giving your body mounting warnings that a place to stop, rest, and recline must be found. Did you knock on door after door, Joseph, reaching out to ancestral connections or search for any safe haven, even if it’s in nature’s bedroom carved into stoney walls whose purpose is to provide shelter for the animals to feed and rest? I do think that “roughing it” is an understatement.
Mary, how long were you in the pain of labor, crushing the hand (I hope) of someone standing with you and beside you? I do doubt it was Jospeh, given the traditions of the time. That just isn’t done! I am hoping that the women of the community recognized your needs and surrounded you with their aid and compassion. Faith in God and following the path God has laid out for you, without many specifics I might add, is one thing. But, in the midst of delivering an infant through your loins, human hands seem to be the ‘angels’ required for this process. Then again, since this was God’s idea, perhaps - miraculously - the birth was quick and painless. Mary, you had been deemed “most favored” after all.
And then your child is born “unto us”. A child who has been created as the “Son of the Most High”, the “Son of God”, “Immanuel” - God with us.
But, for now, it is time to rest - all of you - your weary soles and your souls for this is the day when “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” That’s a lot.
I look forward to hearing tales of your journey, but, in the meantime I send you all a lot of love and lift up prayers for your safety and for many peaceful days together,
Susan