Gather

Journey, join, gather, together.  Those, too, are words of Christmas.  I’ll Be Home for Christmas is almost as poignant as While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night. I went over the list of you few faithful, and only one that I know of will be away from the home house, yet even he will not be without someone to share with. An eager person was waiting at the airport to take your bag for the last leg. My mother heard the car that had driven 308 miles hit the front of the oyster shell driveway and was standing at the back porch door to say, “You’re here,” as she reached out for the nearest child.

Going forth and arriving are strong parts of the blessed story.  A authoritative edict called for taxation, so Joseph and Mary had to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem where the birth of her special child had already been prophesied to occur. Maybe the Christmas miracle is her covering those miles while 8 months 25 days pregnant and making it to a stable before the baby came. Shepherds never considered going to town. They were unkept and had a job to do.   Yet, staff in hand, they went to see if what they were told was true.  How many people saw the star bright in the night sky? Only Wise Men discerned its import, pestered an ornery king, and arrived after the fact. Their gifts may have been needed for the Holy Family to move on again to Egypt.

Hopefully, some coming or going put you in a place with a special group to share the celebration yesterday.  It may have been a larger family, partly unknown, that made itself as one on Christmas Eve. It may have been with some bleary eyed participants around a tree to open gifts.  A time probably arrived when all joined around a table.  The food was sustaining both for body and soul. Now is a time to move on, remembering and sharing the specialness of this occasion.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

Luke 2:20