Traveling Light
Jesus’ birth was a story of travelers.
When Mary was informed by the angel that she, a virgin, would to give birth to the Son of God, she traveled from Nazareth to the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah to talk with her cousin about this strange, surprising news.
Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register in the census for the Roman government. They could find no place to stay, so they stayed in a shed with the animals, and Jesus was born that night. Jesus was born to be King, and yet he wasn’t born in a palace, but rather a stable among the animals.
Then Herod declared that all male babies under the age of two years were to be put to death because he was told that a new king of the Jews had been born. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus traveled to Egypt for safety; back to the land of slavery from which their ancestors had been set free hundreds of years earlier—immigrants in a strange and frightening land.
I hope we will remember all travelers this Christmas: folks joyfully traveling to see loved ones, of course, but also especially folks traveling, like Mary and Joseph, with no place to stay: the homeless, the immigrant, the oppressed. May the light of Christ shine in the darkness; may the light of Christ shine through us!