Behind the story

 Matthew 2:I3-15, 19-23

What a great way for the second Sunday of Christmas to start. You'd think God's son would be safe. You think there would be no hard times for Mary and Joseph, but that's not the way life works. Whenever power feels threatened, it has to squash the competition. So we know this was whole story, the story which goes with this story. Baby's are killed in a search for the infant Jesus and women are left weeping. Why? Why does this have to happen? Isn't God supposed to be able to pull strings? Set things right?

We're never promised this in the Biblical narrative. Danger comes in storms, in mobs who want to make him king and finally in cleansing a temple and being wanted by the state of Rome. Hardships follow, it is not what we do with the hardships which is important. Do we act as if God is out to get us? Do we blame God for lack of protection? Or do we decide we won't risk loving, living because God was supposed to make things easy for us?

I just finished reading Madeleine L'Engle's Dragons in the Waters in this adventure a young boy named Simon has some big decisions to make. He could have chosen to cut himself off from others. Decided life was too unfair. Both parents are dead and someone wants him dead. His hardships are because others have free will. They are free to decide how they will react to the hardships life has placed in their way. And Simon learns how to navigate the difficulties and grow through them. It isn't and easy way, this way, but it is a more fruitful path.

See it isn't right to say God will never give us more than we can handle. This is false, the Bible is full of examples of people who have had too much to handle. Captured and enslaved, hauled off to another country, this is Jeremiah's forecast and it happens. Living in exile as Jews in Egypt, away from family, friends, and support. Having to face never living at home is what Abraham does and then living with the threat of others who would destroy you because you are an outsider. These and so many others show us life gives us more because of others and our decisions.

So what are we to do? Have faith, be faith filled, keep loving and living to the best in us. I know a young woman who has had some medical issues. Has been struggling with them for a while now. The doctor she went to as well as she are young people I knew and had in youth ministries in Maine. Her New Years poem says it all:

My Anthem to 2022:

“I look at life through technicolor glasses

I see my future as bright as the evening sky

Feel a bounce in my step as I take each step forward

Finally I’m having the time of my life

Not trying to be anything I don’t want to be

Giving myself permission to be free to be me

And know that everything will be all right

I feel Your presence in the beauty of the world around me

I feel Your joy in the smile of each loved one’s face

I feel Your power as one small gesture changes lives

And I’m all right 

This world I create, I can create it more intentionally each day

Full of love, full of laughter, full of grace

This journey, with its twists and turns, is full of adventure

I know I have the choice, how to make my own place

I choose to live in courage now

I choose to live in unconditional love

I choose to live in integrity, acceptance and grace

I choose to see the best in others

And not let these battle scars determine my fate

For the world I live in, it’s Mine to create”

- Mara Partridge Presti

It is our choice in how we come out of hardship. God is routing for us to come out with grace and love. It is our decision to make. We can live with courage and risk or we can live safely and bitterly. The choice is ours to make, what will be your choice for this year?