Where are you headed to this Christmas? However you celebrate the festive season, if at all, it’s a time when many embark on journeys of significance, says Rev Abi Todd of Holy Trinity Church, South Woodford
Whether you celebrate Christmas as a religious festival, a cultural festival, or not at all, Christmas is a time when many people move around the country to see family and friends, enjoy the bank holidays and some festive cheer. There’s something significant about the journeys we make – the destination, yes, but the journey itself as well.
This year, we have seen the amazing outpouring of love and grief expressed in ‘the queue’ – thousands waiting and walking and waiting some more… the Queen’s lying in state eventually seemed to take second place in the media coverage. This is a prime example of the importance of journey as well as the destination. So many people had profound experiences, not only as they reached their journey’s climax, but also as they queued with others on the same pilgrimage.
The Christmas story is also all about journeys. Joseph and the pregnant Mary travelling to Bethlehem is really how the story begins. They know the baby will be born, but the journey there is significant. The “Magi from the East” followed the star. They also followed different religious beliefs and practices but ended up following them to this new king. The shepherds, too, travelled from the hills into the town. They were Jesus’s first visitors, these humble folk, invited into something sacred because of their journey.
It seems only a short time ago I was asking my parents from the back of the car: “Are we nearly there yet?” and now I am the one in the driver’s seat, rolling my eyes! For children, the frustration of a long journey is twofold: the time it takes and the lack of knowledge about the journey. We can often be in the same state, asking in our lives: “Are we nearly there yet?” Perhaps our journeys might be the same – the ones in the car, and the more metaphorical journeys; a journey back to health or to reconciliation with a family member. How do we deal with the frustration of undefined journeys?
Perhaps, like Mary, we can find joy at the end of the journey, even if our destination isn’t as comfortable as we thought it might be. Perhaps like the Magi, we might set off on a totally unexpected journey, not quite knowing where we’ll end up. Perhaps like the shepherds, we can know that the message of Christmas is good news for all people and yet found in an unexpected package. Perhaps, as the Queen said in her final Christmas Day speech, we might find that if we journey to see Jesus, we can say to him: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
Wherever you spend Christmas this year, and whoever it’s with, I hope you have a blessed and joyful time and that you can reflect on your own Christmas journey. What’s at its end and what are you discovering on the way?
To contact Reverend Abi Todd, email abi.todd@htsw.org.uk
