Look at the whole picture

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I have a favorite Christmas card: a cozy little cabin snuggled in some snowy woods. Yet, it is only a moment in time. If we could see past the edges of that card, we might also see some pretty familiar sights. I wonder if the lot next door has been clear-cut to make way for a subdivision, or if there is at least one rusted-out refrigerator in the woods.

I hope I am not ruining your Christmas.What I mean is, even the very best pictures of Jesus and his family do not tell the whole story.

You know the story by heart: How the whole town was clogged with travelers, none of whom were there by choice. The emperor wanted them all counted and taxed, and he could have cared less where they slept. Joseph and Mary got a stall instead of a room, which was not as bad as we sometimes make it out to be, but still, not an ideal situation. We know they got a feeding trough, because that was where they laid their treasure, and that is when the picture was taken — right then, while the star was still overhead and the angels were still singing in the rafters.

But twenty minutes later, what? The hole in the heavens had closed up and the only music came from the bar at the inn. I wonder, as she leaned over to pick him up, did Mary start crying too, and when Joseph tried to comfort her, did she tell him she wanted her mother? If she had just married a nice boy from Nazareth, she would say, she would be back home where she belonged, instead of competing with sheep for a place to sleep.

Then she would say she was sorry, she didn’t mean it, and Joseph said not to worry about it. He meant it, too. They both hurt all over and there was nothing to eat and it was cold as the dickens, but you know what? God was still there, right in the middle of the picture. Peace was there, and joy and love — not only in the best of times but also, and especially, in the worst of times, because during those times.

It is the God who comes to us in the midst of life that answers our daily prayers, no matter where we are or if our lives reflect the Christmas cards we send. That is where God is born, in any cradle we will offer, on any pile of straw we will pat together with our hands.

John Jurik is the interim pastor at the Ascension Lutheran Church in Franklin Square and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in West Hempstead.