the journey

It is very early today on this eve of Christmas.  I need to be at the store an hour earlier today as the retail world wants to give everyone as much time as possible to purchase Christmas.  This reality is one of the oddities of my life as I manage the little holiday store helping people 'purchase' Christmas knowing full well that Christmas cannot be purchased.  Christmas is an experience of living that one journeys to and then with.

Within the Christmas story we know so well, on this eve of birth, Mary and Joseph are still journeying to Bethlehem.  For Mary and Joseph, on this eve of birthing, their story is being lived and so,as yet in the early morning light, there are no angels or shepherds or furry animals giving warmth to a cold desert stable as they awaken and begin a new day.  For Mary and Joseph, just like you and I,  have awakened to a brand new day that has a destination and yet is completely unknown.  What I have always suspected as I pondered this part of the Christmas story is that what is within their day today is discomfort - again, I point out that sitting on a donkey the day of giving birth strikes me as extraordinarily uncomfortable - and hope: their destination is finally very near - and concern especially for Joseph as he must be filled with concern for Mary and where and how they will find shelter.  And so, what I experience within this day of the eve of Christmas. is a story of living not much different than your or my living of our story.

This day - this Eve of Christmas - is for me the day of remembering the point of what most of us have been doing since Thanksgiving when we turned our living upside down in preparation for celebrating this season of Christmas is to remember - take the time to ponder - that our story is about being on a journey.

To journey means to undertake an expedition: to travel toward a purpose.  Our living - like the living of Mary and Joseph - is a story of moving through one's days with the intention of birthing the purpose of our lives.  Because the story of Mary and Joseph is both old and well known we forget that they did not know or understand their story any better than we understand our story.  Yes, they birthed Jesus into the world but their real story is actually one we tend to forget because it is such a common story:  they raised Jesus from infancy into adulthood.  Their real story of living is actually not told anymore than ours is told because, I suspect anyway, it looked rather ordinary.  Their real story is a story the of responding to the gift they were given by nurturing, nourishing, sustaining and therefore responding to a child so this unique child - over many, many years - could develop into his own call and purpose.

Christmas, as I experience Christmas, is a reminder that our call is to birth and respond to the unique child within our self.  This unique 'child' is the Light: the seeds: the gifts of God within your and my unique Being.

Like Mary and Joseph we are born - I believe - to manifest the glory of God in human form.  And being able to manifest each of our own unique Light of God, manifest to make palpably evident is a journey of days and weeks and years.

The Christmas story we hear each year reminds us that our journey of manifesting our particular unique Light to the world is a story of odd twists and turns.  Each of our stories is a 'plot' containing unexpected happenings that may in turn appear tragic or comic or simply absurd ... you will at times look ridiculous ... you will at times feel foolish ... you will undergo periods of confusion and doubt that allow new insight to be born ... you will be told 'no' when your are exhausted and on the verge of birthing ... you will also be gifted with the unexpected kindness of friends and strangers ... there will be angels along the way guiding, whispering and heralding ... you will know unexpected grace shining like a star in the blackness of night ... you will have someone to assure you that your truth is 'full of grace' while other laugh at you (or 'tsk' behind your back) ... and if you are able to be mindful of your living, you will indeed be gifted with Magi bearing not only treasures, but the assurance of 'naming' the journey you have been on.  The 'true' Christmas story is not simply birth - the Christmas story is one of living an extraordinary purpose midst the ordinariness of life.

The Christmas story is the awareness that we - each of our living - proclaims that God so loved the world that ..... yes, it is true .... God so loved the world, God sent you as God's preciously unique gift of Light to shine love into the world.