Streams of Mercy

Today’s verses from Matthew’s gospel just don’t fit our image of how the story of Christ’s birth is supposed to unfold. Matthew speaks of the unspeakable- a world of heartache and suffering and killing, inflicted upon innocent children; pain so deep it is difficult for us to comprehend, yet pain in other ways that we understand all too well. If we detour around this part of the story, we miss the fullness of how much this birth means.

The slaughter of innocent children and the flight of the Holy family are harsh and haunting images. Because of their very harshness they tend to be excluded from the telling of the story, for Christmas is not a time when we want to hear about Rachel weeping for her children; it is not the time when we want to view Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus as homeless refugees on the run – but if we leave out this part of the story, we miss the full meaning of the incarnation.

The birth of Jesus didn’t happen at a time when everything was going right, or when people were feeling good about themselves, and no one was in need. This birth broke into the midst of hard times and tragedy, an in-breaking that didn’t deny the pain and suffering and hurt of the world, but happened in spite of it and in the midst of it. The truth of Christmas is the truth of God’s loving presence in the midst of this broken world, then and now – God with us in our very circumstances of the moment, breaking through our pain and suffering with promise and possibility, to shower upon us grace upon grace.

Shadows do fall across the Christmas story and across our lives. In joy and in sorrow, God has a plan to give us something better than what we wish, something more than what we long for. God is here and there is a purpose and a plan and ultimately all things are working together for good, and this year and all the years to come are already inhabited by God’s grace. Thanks be to God!

Elizabeth