During the Christmas season I was asked and asked my friends and family that all time material based question, "What do you want for Christmas?" While it is a joy to receive thoughtful gifts from friends, loved ones and family during this time of year, the number of times that this question is asked makes me wonder, " What are we all searching for?"
Saturday afternoon I had the time and opportunity to go to the movies with my family to see, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." The premise of the film centers on a family's worldwide treasure hunt to find the historical evidence to clear their recently marred name. The story is filled with adventure, excitement, mystery and a great story line that pulls you in. You join in on the adventure, the mystery and search for the treasure that will make everything good again.
Movies have a way of taking us out of real life, as do holidays – but the scripture in Matthew 2 remind us of the harsh reality of life for Jesus and his family.
Days before - three mysterious Kings come to witness, give gifts, worship and ultimately to warn Jesus' parents of Kings Herod's desire to kill the infant. After the king's visit, an Angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to "Get up and take the child to Egypt", in order to avoid the coming wrath of the jealous King Herod. Joseph, Mary and Jesus leave in the middle of the night and stay in Egypt until they hear further directions from God.
King Herod reacts in anger and violence when he realizes that he was tricked by the Magi and orders all boys two years old and younger to be killed in order to keep the new king from taking over Herod's throne. A great wave of grief and horror fill the mother's hearts in Israel whose children have been killed. It is only after Herod's death that the angel of the Lord gives Joseph the word to return to Israel, where they finally settle in a small town called Nazareth.
The gospel reading in Matthew 2 reminds me of an adventure film with it's travels in the middle of the night, mysterious visiting Kings, Angel messages in dreams and the terrible actions of a power hungry king. However, the reality of loss and death bring this story into the reality and an imperfect and dark world.
The world of Joseph and Mary isn't unlike the world that we live in today. Examples of darkness in our world crowd into our Christmas week like the shooting of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the bombing that caused the death of 22 others in Pakistan. The news reports of her death came with scenes of mourning and loss on the faces of people in Pakistan. In the midst of this terrible situation, we can connect to the emotion and feeling of loss over people unjustly robbed of their lives. The actions of Herod in Matthew 2 echo the senseless results of violence that we have all witnessed in the past week. In this time where innocents are lost the treasure of the world – Jesus – remains waiting for the right time to make himself known.
While the world waited, Mary and Joseph remained thankfully open to the direction and leading of God. They too must have felt the loss and grief of Israel when they looked at their safe toddler, but they held on to the promise and waited for direction.
In all of the details of this dramatic story, I find myself drawn to the thankful openness of Joseph and Mary. In their hearts Mary and Joseph probably dreamed of going home, settling down and creating a stable home for their new family and return to "normal" life. Being chosen as the parents of God's only son required that they put aside their plans for the future and wait upon God for direction. It was their dependence upon God that kept them in the most challenging, but most secure place they could live. Their lives depended upon the thankful openness that they maintained with God. This kind of openness was evidence in their willingness to listen to angels, pick up in the middle of the night and travel to unfamiliar lands and carry on even in the midst of great grief over Israel's loss. God entrusted his son to a couple that truly understood what was needed: thankful openness and relationship with himself, God.
Ultimately, we all will move past the holiday season and put away our decorations, eat all our cookies and treats, and begin the process of moving back to the day to day reality of real life. So in the midst of every day life, what is it that you truly need? The question that we all need to ask is not, " What do I want for Christmas", but "What do I need from God in my daily life?"
God is with us on the treasure hunt and is willing to give us the clues to take the next step on our journey with Him. We find what we are truly looking for when we live a life in thankful openness to God. The true adventure begins when we invite God into our real life.
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