Path
Home
“For
outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and
courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey, but only the
beginning—not home, but the place through which we must pass if
ever we are to reach home at last.”
Frederick
Buechner (The Magnificent Defeat)
One of the images
associated with the season of Advent, is a winding path toward
Bethlehem, with Joseph leading, and Mary, exceedingly pregnant,
riding on a donkey. The journey to register in the place of one's
birth is a little-remembered detail in the grand story of the star,
the manger, the birth of the Christ child, angels, shepherds and wise
men. I am not a theologian, but I believe this detail represents the
return home—back to one's roots, back to recognizing who we are and
where we came from. It is also significant to me that Jesus' first
journey, and his last, were aboard a donkey, the lowliest of
creatures. Jesus came into the world in humble circumstances, and by
choice, left by the same route.
The birth in Bethlehem
brought the beginning of a new day, a new way of being, a new light
of understanding. Buechner's reference to The Wizard of Oz, also
records such a journey—follow the yellow brick road in order to
discover, in the course of many challenges and mishaps, what you
already have—a heart, a brain, and courage. And, in discovering
them, return home with new eyes for what has always been, and how
very good it is.
In our journey toward
Christmas, let us remember where we came from, and that Bethlehem
represents, not an end to our travel, but a beginning. Let us take
the light of that star, and the illumination of the Christ child,
back home and put it to good use.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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