Listen

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

Luke 2:1-7

Think

Frederick Buechner’s 1964 sermon, “The Birth,” features a monologue from the character of the Innkeeper that features this line: “Do you know what it is like to run an inn – to run a business, a family, to run anything in this world for that matter, even your own life? It is like being lost in a forest of a million trees… and each tree is a thing to be done.” The character is described as a realist, a man simply doing his job.

Our western culture thrives on productivity. Many of us have work that shapes our entire lives. But busy-ness can keep us from recognizing Jesus, even when he’s right in front of us. Buechner’s piece concludes: “[W]hen the baby came… I was lost in the forest somewhere. So how am I to say it, gentlemen? When he came, I missed him.”

In a world of distractions, self-medication, and consumerism, Jesus is always close – gazing back at us through the eyes of the overlooked, if we only take the time to see.

Holle Tubbs

Pray

God, find me in the forest of a million trees.

Give me eyes to see beyond the task in front of me.

Show me the contours of your love and justice when I get too busy to notice them myself.

Amen.

Go

Lord, purge our eyes to see
Within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird,
Within the shroud a butterfly:

Till taught by such, we see
Beyond all creatures Thee,
And hearken for Thy tender word,
And hear it, “Fear not: it is I.”

Christina Rossetti in “Judge not according to the appearance” (1892)