The first Christmas was not a magical holiday story full of family turkey dinners, carol singing, and football games. It did not involve decorating trees, baking cookies and opening gifts.
Rather, the first Christmas is a refugee story.
It tells of a young, poor, homeless asylum-seeking couple who fearfully flee their country and become residents in a foreign land in order to save their child’s life.
Yet this story is also a story of hope. In the midst of this violent and fearful event, God shows up in the flesh: not as a king who has worldly power, and not as one who is distant and does not understand the plight of the marginalized. Rather, God shows up as one of the marginalized.
God – who personally understands us in our human suffering – shows up in our lonely and fearful moments, offering us hope that we will one day be released from our burdens. We can find some peace, knowing God hears our cries. We can have joy that God is with us always and provides us with a home in God’s constant presence.
This message is excerpted from “A God who shows up” by Emily Heitzman in the December 2021 Café online magazine. Today we commemorate the Holy Innocents, martyrs.
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