Getting Along
for December 20, 2013


5" x 5" pencil on cotton paper, available to frame
click here for a larger image


Well, I changed my mind! I said I was going to stick with Mary and Elizabeth for this weekend and for Sunday but now I have been led to explore images of the travels of Mary and Joseph, here from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Either that, or Joseph went to bring Mary back home. It's not the flight into Egypt since she's pregnant here and ready to deliver soon. Those of you who have been there --at one time great with child --can you imagine riding a donkey anywhere? Maybe she just walked alongside the creature who was bearing some of their belongings and it was easier for her to do that and maybe only ride occasionally. In the same way we stop for gas and restroom breaks, they are pictured stopping for a drink of water for the animal and refreshment for them, too, we would suppose.

Donkeys are interesting little animals. They have big heads and sturdy little bodies that as we know from those burros working at the Grand Canyon trails are able to walk in a surefooted way along steep paths. But they are not elegant or noble like a Percheron, Clydesdale, an Arabian or a thoroughbred, like a rich person or a Roman leader would ride.  

To think that an animal like this carried our Lord before birth, and afterward as an infant having to escape for his life, and then later in life in his triumphal entry –well, it is part of the story and part of my imagination here in this early aspect of the Christmas narrative and a great symbol for what we have in this Christmas message.

The Lord comes into the world poor and needy, among common people who are hard-working, religious, decent people. Christ comes in humble circumstances, not high and mighty, without fanfare --except from a few who noticed and the angelic messengers who could not keep from bursting forth to sing before the shepherds! So how we celebrate Christmas, how we declare this Good News, and the extent to which we go in our decorations and customs will never quite comprehend the full, clear, and certain Christmas announcement of God to be with us --all of us, as do these many simple images we bear through art, musical verse, or story of the holy family traveling by foot and with a donkey along the trails of humanity.

--Pastor Jack.