(Any opinion expressed in this column belongs to its author.)
(Featured photo is a portion of Carlo Crivelli’s “The Virgin and Child with Saints” circa 1476 which hangs in The National Gallery in London. Charmain Z. Brackett/Augusta Good News)
“Are you going home for Christmas?”
It’s a question we’re all asked at some point in the holiday season because home is where we want to be at Christmastime. Well, this Christmas season, I’m here to remind you that you are home because home is wherever you find the Christ Child.
Over 2,000 years ago, a young man and his very pregnant wife were trying to get home – not home for the holidays but home in time for the baby to come. A nursery was waiting. A crib, hand carved by the man, was waiting. And the young mother-to-be knew her time of waiting was just about over. Soon, they would be home, just as soon as they took care of some paperwork for the government. And then, home!
But the baby didn’t know that. Home for him was the womb, warm and comfortable. But lately the baby’s home began to feel a bit too snug for comfort. He would toss and turn, stretching out his legs and arms looking for room.
Then the thought came that he needed a new home and he stretched and pushed and pushed again, until he came out into the arms of a nervous looking man, who quickly placed him in the arms of an exhausted but smiling woman. And now this baby was truly home, cradled in the arms of love, for home is anywhere love born and love became incarnate that night in a makeshift nursery.
That’s the miracle of Christmas. And the miracle is that that love is still with us, still incarnate in Jesus Christ, who now is the one who cradles us. Jesus is cradling all our hopes and fear of all the years. All we have to do is claim him as our true home.
Right now, there are millions of exhausted people who have worn themselves out trying to make a perfect Christmas. They have been run ragged by trying to find the perfect gift, the perfect tree, the perfect decorations for the perfect home until they are perfectly miserable. They are just waiting for Christmas to be over. But Beloved, Christmas has just begun!
We keep forgetting that we don’t make Christmas, Christmas makes us. And right now is the perfect time to make that discovery. By now, everything that could be done, has been done. All that is left to do is sit quietly before the Christmas tree.
That’s what parents of newborns do; after all the fuss of trying to get everything ready, everything perfect, all they can do is marvel at the presence of this new life. Nothing else matters. And the presence of this newborn makes any place home, be it a hospital room or a makeshift nursery. All they want to do is hold their precious child.
Beloved, all Jesus wants this Christmas is to hold you, His precious child. You are the one He wants to cradle. You are the one He now calls Beloved.
The One who is Christmas, now makes Christmas in you. So, when people ask you, “Are you going home for Christmas?”, tell them, “I’m already home.”
Augusta Good News, a local, digital newspaper, is a member of the Georgia Press Association. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Taylor recently retired as the founding rector of Church of the Holy Comforter (Episcopal) in Martinez. She spent 35 years in parish ministry, breaking the glass ceiling as the first woman priest in every parish in which she served. Dr. Taylor now serves as a member of the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.
