The Star
… the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it
stopped over the place where the child was. Matthew 2:9
Strange travelling star,
you baffled the magi.
They followed you,
anxious to solve your mystery.
You continue to baffle.
How could you have led
the travelers from Jerusalem
to Bethlehem? How could you
have stopped over a specific house
where a mother nursed
her baby? Were their instruments
so sophisticated?
Were you a comet
flying low and slow,
on a special mission?
Are you a metaphor
for how hard it still is
to follow the Light?
And how possible?
Refugees
“He
got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.
Matthew 2:14
They fled in the night. Warned in a dream,
they had little time to sort and pack. They grabbed
what they could, bundled the baby,
and quietly slipped down the alleys
and out of town. The trek across the desert
was brutal, water at a premium.
Egypt was a strange far place to them.
Did they experience resistance at the border?
Did Egypt have a policy of mercy for those seeking political asylum?
Maybe they found an unguarded spot and slipped across the border
unseen. Once inside, where did they stay?
Did they find room in some foreign inn?
Years later, back home in Palestine,
did Jesus remember his refugee days?
Even now does he have a place in his heart for others
who flee across deserts and borders, seeking a place to call home?
No doubt.
