An Inconvenience
December 24, 2008 – 9:03 pmOne evening last week, I unexpectedly came across a TV program featuring the Oak Ridge Boys and Manhein Steamroller as they performed a fundraiser for Feed the Children. One of the groups sang the song about the first Christmas being the most inconvenient Christmas. Yes, it was full of inconveniences.
Can we imagine all the inconveniences the weary travelers faced? Traveling for miles for a stupid census, tired and hungry wondering where they would find food and lodging along with all the other people in the same situation. Patience must have been strained as they pushed and shoved trying to secure that last hotel room or hoping that the wayside stand had a few remaining particles of food. And then we have Mary – about to give birth.
I was reminded of a meditation I recently read in The Progressive Christian about the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The writer of the meditation, Pam McAllister, wondered what Phillip Brooks was thinking when he penned the words “stillness, deep sleep and silent stars.” Aside from the silent stars, the town of Bethlehem must have resembled our busy airports at this time of the year – nasty weather hampering travel, flights cancelled, and weary travelers sleeping on benches, the floor, or wherever they can stretch out.
Yes, it is all very inconvenient, as was that first Christmas. Yet in the midst of that weariness, uncertainty, and unhappiness, God came to the world in the form of a newborn child. Today, in the midst of uncertainty, unhappiness, greed, hunger, and war, God is still with us. May God’s presence be felt in your life during this Christmas season, and throughout the entire year.
I’ll be back next year. Merry Christmas.
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