Seeking Hope for Restoration
A couple of months ago, (or maybe even a bit longer since time just feels like it's flying by!), I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Abiding Together. Sister Miriam James Heidland was talking about using our imaginations to place ourselves in the Holy Family's House in Nazareth. She encouraged listeners to imagine spending time with the Holy family and consider what that interaction would look and sound like; maybe a conversation with Mary, or watching Jesus working with Saint Joseph in their workshop.
And while that sounded peaceful, I can't say that it felt right for me. Peace isn't the word that jumps into my mind when I think of some of the hard things that I navigate in my own family. So imagining interacting with the Holy Family in their home in Nazareth left me feeling unconnected and that I just didn't fit in there.
I kept coming back to Sister Miriam's meditation idea over the next couple of weeks. At some point, I thought about how the Holy Family didn't just live all of their quiet, peaceful years in Nazareth. They also spent several years living in Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod.
Escape to a Strange Land
"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."
Mary and Joseph found themselves living in a faraway place without any of their familiar comforts. They left in a hurry, fearing for their beloved Son's life, so what they would have had time to pack would have been minimal. They left their familiar environment. In Egypt, the Holy Family lived without the physical and emotional connection of their family and friends. They lived without their usual faith community or place of worship. And they had to create a temporary life in Egypt without knowing exactly how "temporary" it would be.
Relating to Being Uprooted
Some of us may be facing the challenge of being physically uprooted from our environment because of a move to a new home or even a new part of the country. But more of us can relate to the emotional uprooting that happens when something significant changes our everyday lives. A diagnosis, loss of a job, fracture in a family relationship, death of a love one, etc., can all leave us feeling that we've been stranded in a strange land. Since life is often messy and we live in a fallen world, maybe you can relate better at this moment to the Holy Family living in exile, trying to create a new "normal" in a place they didn't expect to be.
For me, it definitely feels more fitting and comforting to imagine myself with the Holy Family during their time in Egypt. It's a comfort to know that Mary also had to navigate through hard, unexpected circumstances and love and care for her family with what God provided even when His plan contained details and a timeline that wasn't what she imagined. I can imagine how hard it was to adjust to daily living in a foreign country, the concern she had as she encouraged Saint Joseph as he found ways to make a living to support his little family, and the love she poured out to Jesus as she created a home and tried to find community in the midst of all the uncertainty.
Mary's perfect trust in God regardless of her circumstances is always something worth pondering, and that perfect trust is worth asking for the grace to do ourselves, in the midst of our own challenges that life throws our way - especially those crosses that are not quickly or easily rectified.
Imagine sitting with Mary in Egypt and pouring out all of your fears over the broken details in your life right now, knowing that she understands living in a difficult situation filled with a lot of unknowns. Asking her how to be patient in the waiting and how to trust when it feels like things will never be normal or "ok" again. Asking her how to love and care for our spouse and children in the midst of hard circumstances.
Most of all, we can ask for the gift of hope as we wait with expectation of how God will restore what has been lost.
(And introducing our newest bundle of hope, Monica Michelle)