The day after the calendar feast of the Epiphany and the day before the Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany on Sunday. I walked our wise men/kings from one end of the book shelf to the manger scene yesterday morning. The walk was like the walk that I used to move Barbie across a floor or the Little Tikes people when I played with our boys' toys. Something in the gesture of tapping the bottoms of these plastic creatures tiny step after tiny step across the wood of this shoulder high book shelf finally reaching the place a few inches away from Mary and her baby and from the (in my imagination) smelly stable where the donkey and the cow rest near the holy family... evoked a quick series of sensations and thoughts. The smells of the place. The effort required of the three kings as they traveled to this place on camelback. The yearning of man throughout history for a Savior. The magic and miracle of seeing truly for the first time the tiny infant, newborn fresh from eternity .. a gift to us here already on earth. The joy of discovering for the first time the miracle of a child.. an awareness that this child is extraordinary.. and will reveal truth to us. about who we are.. children of God, all of us. Part of me wonders: does a child absorb or ingest on a spiritual level the hopes and dreams of its parents and its community. Does a child sense the deepest desires of its mother and father and then live into those dreams? and if a child is fed, emotionally, spiritually, physically and psychologically, does that child then have the freedom to embody and live out those yearnings and that vision? I know better than to credit the human family for all of its children's choices. There is the divine spark within each of us that inspires us to unique responses to the moment by moment callings. I'll call that God.. cuz that works for me. Back to the stable.. and the awestruck three kings... how lovely for Mary and Joseph to have company, and to have them admire their baby. How affirming to have the older generation seek out their child and discover in their very own child, baby Jesus, their hope fed. AS one priest said in this mornings video reflection: now the feast may begin! (The reading for today was about Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding feast.) That little baby grew up to be that miracle worker... so that we could have endless joy.
