Where are We in the Christmas Story?
Guest Writer Eve Turek
One of the best and most creative ways I have ever heard to make Scripture fresh and relevant to your daily life is to imagine yourself as a character in a familiar story—the Christmas Story, for instance. Now, I don’t do this myself nearly as often as I should, but here are some thoughts for your contemplation. Who would you be in this story? Who do you most identify with today?
Would you be Mary? Challenged to believe something about yourself that seems literally impossible, so much so that you are risking your reputation, your future with your beloved, in fact, perhaps your very life, to say “yes” to this new role?
Or maybe you could be Joseph, steadfast, faithful, loyal. Steeped in tradition that dictates only one response, a response that has crashed into your love for your betrothed. So you plan to compromise, send her away quietly, saying yes completely neither to love nor to law…and then, you have a Dream. Now the choice is even harder. Go all in for love over law, and undertake the first of what will be several perilous journeys, to shelter, protect, and nourish what God is bringing forth into the world?
I kind of like the Shepherds. Watching over their sheep, sleeping under the stars, taking turns watching in the night. Sounds reasonably peaceful and bucolic. Yeah. I could do that. Oh, wait—what was that?!? What is that Sound?? What is that Light?? I am in an open field, I have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide… Angels? Holy Child? Go see and then go tell?? Notice the first impulse, the first response is terror. Honestly, that sounds like what my response would be, too. They found the courage to believe the improbable and follow through. Do I? Can I bear witness to what I believe I have seen and heard? How about you?
Or maybe you relate more to one of the Three Travelers. Some traditions name them Kings—wielders of both power and authority. Other traditions call them Wise Men, sages, mages, or even astrologers. We don’t know precisely how they met, but they each received the same sense of calling, to follow a star and bring gifts to a newborn Child-King. Notice their response, what it was, what it wasn’t. It wasn’t rejection, jealousy, guarding their own position, possessions, and power. It was humility and recognition that Someone Greater was coming on the scene.
And that brings us to a fourth king, Herod. He could have made the same choice as the Three Travelers. Instead, he chose the opposite path, of protecting his earthly dominion at any cost, including subterfuge, lies, and eventually, even mass murder. His own personal royal power mattered more to him than anything else. As a king, Herod stands in stark contrast to the Three who journeyed on to find and worship the Christ Child.
He is the one figure missing in every nativity scene. He couldn’t bring himself to believe and receive. He held on to what he thought he had, rather than risk, as all these others did, moving beyond what their lives had always been and embracing a new reality and a new identity for themselves and for the larger world.
For we are no longer estranged, but embraced, as Mary and Joseph.
No longer alone, but accompanied, as the Three Travelers.
No longer silenced and shunned, but seeking and sharing, as the Shepherds.
Who are you in the Story?
Eve Turek
Joanna Seibert joannaseibert.com