I am a traveler on a sacred journey
through this one shining day.
~ Richard Wagamese, Embers
As Advent arrives, I’ve been returning to the Christmas stories, to ponder again those ancient Biblical renditions of the birth and early life of Jesus. As I revisited them, I wondered what might be there to inspire my Advent participation this time around. The longer I mused on the stories, the single word “journey” kept popping up.
Each of the narratives depicts people traveling somewhere, for various reasons. Mary of Nazareth “travels in haste” to visit Elizabeth. Later, she’s on the road with Joseph for the required census registration in Bethlehem. This couple will have future journeys to make—a trip to present Jesus in the temple and the dangerous one they take as fear-filled refugees hoping to save their child from being murdered. Other stories depict the Magi who “set out” to follow a star leading them to their destination. Shepherds, surprised by glorious songs, leave their flocks and go “in haste” to meet the Child. All these personages travel due to to their particular circumstances: kindness, duty, wonder, joy, and safe refuge. Because of the journeys they make, each person experiences an encounter with the Light of the World.
While “journey” is present in the Christmas stories, it also exists in our lives as a personal metaphor. Each of us travels in some way, both inwardly and outwardly, journeying through the days and years. As with the biblical figures, we have people, events, circumstances, dreams, music, intuitions, and other beckonings that influence who we are and how our lives develop.
In the “Introduction” to her latest book, No Straight Road Takes You There, climate and human rights activist Rebecca Solnit concludes: “For so many of our destinations, no straight road takes us there. The route is over mountains or through forests and beyond what we know—and it may also be through inconceivable beauty and transformation as well as peril; it may be uncharted, or steep, or take decades or centuries to traverse; we may get there through storytelling, alliance, or the appearance of some unanticipated participants.”
There was no straight road for Mary, Joseph, the Magi, or the shepherds. Nor is there for us. Like those in the Christmas stories who listened, observed, followed where a dream, a star, a song, and a careful attentiveness led them, so with our path of life. I wonder if it might be a helpful Advent practice to choose one of the figures in these narratives to focus on, seeing how our personal journey contains something of theirs, and to enliven this in our actions. For example, remembering how Mary hurried to visit Elizabeth, I choose to be ready to go where my time and care assists others. Or, like the shepherds who listened and followed, I listen to what calls me to leave pressing duties and meet the Holy One in prayer.
The poet Antonio Machado wrote, ”Walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking.” May our Advent journeys walk us to an ever fuller recognition of the Light of the World.
Abundant peace as you travel through Advent,
Joyce Rupp
