One of my favorite children’s Christmas books is “A Small Miracle” by Peter Covington. The book has no words. Only pictures. Exquisitely drawn images of an elderly peasant woman who wakes up in her old mobile home (picture a covered wagon on wooden wheels) to no bread in her cupboard. It’s fascinating to “read” the story with a child and ask him or her to explain what is happening in each graphic. I won’t ruin the story for you in case you want to read it but what I will tell you is that at some point, the colorful ceramic figurines from the traditional nativity scene come alive and become part of an elderly woman’s life story. They do not sit still in a tableau, but step out of the crèche and into the town’s drama where this starving peasant struggles to survive.

The book reminds me that our words are the ones that matter now. We have the opportunity to tell the story of Christmas with our own lives. The wise men and shepherds of the Bible are more than props in God’s ancient inbreaking into humanity 2000 years ago. The nativity scene characters are templates for human activity today. Who among us will wisely travel across national borders and religious divides to bring gifts of love? What middle-class small business owners will pause their sheep tending to listen to hopeful angelic voices? Who are the Marys conceiving new life? Who are the Josephs defying conventional norms to stay true to love?

“When divine love becomes incarnate in us, Christ is born anew.”    – Ilia Delio

Could today’s magi take the form of Taylor Swift passing out gifts and taking selfies on the oncology wing at Children’s Mercy? Might the shepherds be the ones working the night shift in the Kansas City police department on Christmas Eve? Might Mary be a migrant on the border seeking shelter. Might Joseph be the father who coaches the son’s basketball team? Could the angels be all those faithful souls who will keep shouting God’s love in a world that so often feels dark and uncaring? We are called not just to remember those who were there that night but to step into the unfolding drama of God’s earth-shattering love today.

Grace and Peace,
Carla