Advent & Christmas Images
There are many ways to journey to Bethlehem during Advent. I don’t know how well you wait or how “patient” you are. I don’t think of myself as a patient person. I’ve learned to wait and I’ve learned patience. In our culture, “waiting” or “patience” are not traits or behaviors that are encouraged because they cannot be consumed. Often, waiting and patience are thrust on those looking to change unjust systems or right long persistent wrongs.
What are you using as a compass for your Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany journey? Some journey through music. My companion has so much “Christmas” music that she could probably listen to 4 hours each day and not listen to it all! We have some albums, yes those big old 33.3 speed albums, that were played over and over in her childhood. I imagine that my companions “Christmas” music evokes images of family time more than they tell the story of Christmas for her. On SiriusXM radio there are eight channels of “holiday” music that began running on Nov 25. Right now I’m listening to “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” Do you have a favorite tune or music you need to hear for it to feel like Christmas for you? Is there a song that brings back a particular memory for you during Advent or Christmas? Is music your compass?
This year I’m journeying, being led really, through Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany with images. I like film, art, and photography. Some of the “images” are leading and others are following me.
Sometimes this is how we treat children of God of all ages when questions about belief and faith arise.
In the late 1990’s our bus was snaking through a checkpoint into Bethlehem. A sea of people were walking, leaving their cars along the road around the Bethlehem checkpoint, and walking into Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers. In the basement of The Church of the Nativity is the place tradition calls “the manger.” A small grotto hewn out of the rock nothing like the drive-by nativity or table top sets that are popular. These images are following me most this year.
I trust you are awake and aware of the images that surround you during Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. You are pointing the way for someone new to belief, aged in belief, or mature in belief. Maybe the best thing that one pointing the way to Bethlehem can give, this year, is that which cannot be consumed, bought, sold, or bartered. I’m not sure what that will be for you, but I am convinced that when we wait and are patient . . . clarity comes, maybe even illumination.
If you are pointing the way to Bethlehem this year, thank you. It’s not easy. You cannot force the spirit of Christmas into lives no matter how early stores begin “holiday” music. It takes waiting and patience. Be well and centered this Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany season.