I have arrived
at a time in my life when I am very glad that I no longer have to travel during
the holidays. This year I was delighted that my family came to us. Fred and I were able to sit on the
sofa in our decorated living room, enjoy the glow of the Christmas tree, and
wait for our daughters and their families to burst through the front door! But
it hasn’t always been that way. We have done our share of traveling at the
holidays. For many years, Fred and I bundled up the girls in their winter
coats, put our suitcases in the back of the van, packed a thermos of coffee,
and headed off to the East Coast to see his family. Most of that traveling was
done at night. Fred would come home after a day’s work, we’d eat dinner, and
then we’d begin a long night’s drive with the girls asleep in the back seat.
What I remember
most about those nights were the signs that regularly appeared along the road
as we drove. They were large and easily seen: reflective green signs directed
us to exits on the interstate; big billboards enticed us to stop at a hotel or
a restaurant; and tall, brightly lighted logos alerted us to a gas station at this exit! They called attention to
themselves, thrusting their glow through the winter darkness like huge
flashlight beams. These signs are part and parcel of everyone’s travel
experiences. Even if we don’t go long
distances to visit family, when we drive to the mall, go out to eat, or treat
ourselves to a movie, we rely on those big, brightly lighted signs to get us
where we want to go.
But the sign
that was the very foundation of Christmas wasn’t brightly lighted at all. In
fact, the shepherds had to look hard to find it! God’s angel told them about it
on the very first Christmas eve. After that angel announced the Messiah’s birth,
the shepherds were told that the sign that it had really happened would be a
child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. That sign isn’t nearly
as impressive as the McDonald’s signs that tower above the trees at interstate
exits! A swaddled baby lying in a manger? How ordinary! And how easily
overlooked!
Have you ever
thought about how difficult it was for the shepherds to get to the manger that
first Christmas eve? The night was dark after the angels disappeared, even
darker than usual in contrast with the glory that had just flooded the
hillsides. And the shepherds had no street lights to guide their way. There
must have been dozens of stables in the little village of Bethlehem; and the
stable for which they were searching had no neon sign out front. They had to
look through every single dark, dirty stable in town. To make matters worse,
the village was crowded with other temporary residents who had been required to
travel there. I imagine that there were many folks beside Mary and Joseph who
had taken refuge in a stable. To get to the manger of the Christ child, the
shepherds had to search through dozens of crowded stables in the dark of night.
They must have wondered why God had given them a sign that was so hard to find!
It must have been especially puzzling since this sign announced the birth of
the Messiah.
I’ve often
wondered what the shepherds saw as they went trying to get to the Messiah’s
manger. They must have seen the worst in life as they went looking for the
best. They probably saw travelers who had gone to bed hungry: travelers who had
no money to buy food and no family to help them get any. They probably saw
beggars and orphaned children on the streets, tucked into a dark corner trying
to catch a few winks of sleep in the cold. They might even have passed lepers
on their way into Bethlehem, men and women who were exiled from society as they
died slowly from their incurable disease. And as the shepherds passed by all
this pain and suffering, they must have wondered whether the Messiah had really
been born into a broken world such as ours. But when they got to the manger and
found the baby who was wrapped in swaddling clothes lying there – then they knew that God had indeed been come into
our midst to save us from ourselves!
It isn’t any
easier for us to get to the manger today than it was for the shepherds. The signs
of Christ’s presence are still hard to find. We look around, and we see poverty
and death and greed and corruption, just like the shepherds might have seen on
their way to the manger; and we wonder whether the Messiah is really here at
all. That’s why, every now and then, someone will ask, “Why doesn’t God give us
a sign to show us that he is still around?” When they ask that question, they’re
looking for a sign that is big and impressive, like a lighted Cracker Barrel
billboard. But that’s not the kind of sign that the shepherds were told to look
for. The sign that helped them get to the manger was as ordinary as can be – just
a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Maybe we should
be looking for something ordinary, too, to help us get to the manger of that
very extraordinary child. Maybe,
instead of looking for lighted billboards, we should be looking for little
signs that are almost invisible unless we’re looking for them – signs of
hospitality, compassion, acceptance, and love – signs that are easy to miss
because they are overshadowed by all the bad news that we hear every day. But
they’re out there for us to find if we search for them. In every place where
there are homeless families living in cardboard boxes, here there are also compassionate
people who offer them food, clothing, and blankets. Where there are hateful
actions directed towards Muslims or Jews or homosexuals, there are loving
groups of people who rally around those persecuted communities. And where there
is loneliness – in nursing homes, or hospitals, or just in the homes of older
adults who have outlived their friends and their families – there are loving folks
who are trying their best to ease that loneliness. Those are the kinds of signs
that point the way to the manger today. Oh, it’s not easy for us to find the
Christ child, because we no longer have a physical manger to find. Today, we
have to get to that manger through human hearts. But the good news of Christmas
is that the Christ child is always here for us to find. His name is Emmanuel: God
with us. And that’s exactly where he is, today and forever: with us. Thanks be
to God!
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