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REFLECT
Like birds, on that first Christmas, Mary and Joseph and Jesus had to travel a long way, from one kind of home to another, vulnerable and brave, seeking safety and refuge, the night wrapped around them like a cloak of protection.
Like birds, they made a nest for Jesus out of straw (and if they could have, no doubt they would have lined it with soft feathers from their own “brood patch”). With the other animals there that night, the scene was a glimpse of the Peaceable Kingdom.
Like birds, the angels that night filled the skies over the shepherds and their flocks, singing for at least three reasons:
- to clarify territory (All creation belongs to the God of love!)
- to invite a relationship (God loves us all, and calls us to love God and neighbor!)
- and above all, to sing for its own sake – to sing for joy!
Like birds, the Magi navigated by the stars (songbirds migrate at night, too, using the stars as a guide), step by step, a journey of courageous love.
And like a bird, somewhere near that manger there must have been the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, sitting quietly up in the rafters, looking down on the One who comes to seek and serve and save – long ago and far away, and also right here, right now, on this sweet and silent night
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