Advent-Passage to Bethlehem

In Luke 2:1-5 and Matthew 2:6 we read that prophecy was fulfilled with the Christ Child being born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph had to venture from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Into the Judean hills they set forth to travel long days, night skies, danger among those hills. The birth was to take place in another place.

Mary and Joseph were being “set apart” to be used by God for something very special. There needed to be a time of preparation, a journey into the wilderness alone with God. Their lives were being transformed. Their journey, led by God, was to make them ready for new birth.

Three years ago I felt God might be calling me to retire from a full time appointment to a church. I hadn’t planned it. I wasn’t sure it was the time. Yet I understood the stirrings of being called to something else. I went away for a week into the “wilderness” by myself to pray and listen to God. During that time I wrote lots in my journal. Here are a few notes…each new paragraph is an excerpt from a new day in the wilderness.

I love the simplicity of the wilderness. Trying to make a fire…wish I had paid more attention along the way…like in Girl Scouts or something! Finally, I got it! Ah, the intimacy of tending a fire. It is good. It is my companion right now. Don’t want it to ever go out. I remember a note from my friend and her wish for me, “I hope your new time is one to dance.”

My writing continued..

I am surrounded by darkness as if in a cocoon. But I am not afraid. I am safe, secure, being HELD. I feel like I am unwinding at 90 miles per minute. How could silence be this invigorating? It’s just You and me here God. Nothing else. No one else, but Your creation.

I feel like I am starting over with my life. I don’t know what it looks like. I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like. What would make me dance? It can only come as a GIFT. Right now I don’t even want to move. “Be still and know that I am God”.

Which road leads to finding myself? again? anew? I can’t figure it out. I don’t want to. I want You to reveal it to me. I need Your WORD? Help me listen!

Listening is so slow and hard. Am I not working at it? I thought I wasn’t supposed to work at it. I don’t know what to do! “Do nothing.” Well, it seems that is what I am doing. When are You going to bring my answer?

It’s a beautiful day…cold, but sunny this morning. I feel Your PEACE streaming in through the window in that sunshine. Here I sit, outside in my big fluffy bathrobe and my boots. In the wilderness one becomes real, and knows that God is God in the beauty of creation.

I ended my wilderness journey with the four Haiku writings I had just completed in my 4 week Advent Journey…( a Haiku consists of the first line- 5 syllables, second line- 7 syllables, third line- 5 syllables.