By Soren and Ever Johnson
It’s Advent again—a sobering moment for every Christian parent. How will we get through the season? With every gift wrapped, but with exhausted, empty hearts? Instead of filling out our lists and getting on the Christmas treadmill, we’re sensing the call to place ourselves in the very first Advent, in the shoes of Mary and Joseph on their journey from where they lived in Nazareth to a different kind of home in Bethlehem.
We’ve been over their story so many times that we tend to skip the details, fast-forwarding right to our favorite part: Christmas morning. But what if we slowed down and realized we need to make our own journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem?
We really don’t want to stay in Nazareth—our default life with its overwrought, joyless self-justification projects, impersonal tendencies, and ideas of what it all “should” look like. No, we know we’re being invited to leave all that behind and step out on a journey to a home and family transformed by the central presence of Jesus Christ.
At the heart of our family’s prayer this season, and of the Trinity House ministry in every season, is a desire to live together with God, making our home into a little taste of heaven. As we journey from our old life to opening our home to live with God Himself, we hope to leave behind our often self-centered plans and schemes, and be guided instead by His way of life, which centers on one another, not on ourselves.
As we focus on the Gospel accounts of that first Advent, we glimpse Joseph and Mary making their way together along the road. We feel their shared anticipation, their mounting expectation of the Christ Child. And we sense just how recent their incredible meetings were: Mary’s message from the angel Gabriel… Joseph’s visit from an angel in a dream… Perhaps we overhear them talking about their questions and awe over their angelic encounters. We might also become aware of their pain at the rejection they so recently received from their neighbors.
As we experience walking through Advent with the Holy Family, we find that their struggles and joys have the capacity to reframe our own. Like us, they too need to stop and rest often; so much is determined by the ever-growing child. At times, Mary seems lost in joyful prayer, at other times, in deep exhaustion. She watches Joseph lovingly, anticipating little ways she can tend to him. Meanwhile, Joseph is attentive, resolute, and protective over her and the child.
When they finally arrive in Bethlehem, heavy with fatigue, they are met with closed doors. Many are the times in life when we experience the same. But like Mary and Joseph, when we have open doors to each other, that sure softens the blow. They begin to experience the first pangs of labor, and still, no room. Even so, we see the baseline of trust and peace; their confidence in God is unshaken. Somehow they know, there is still something very beautiful to come.
This, in a microcosm, is the Advent decision we all face in the coming weeks and beyond, throughout the whole year. We can stay back in Nazareth with our image, our comforts and our self-reliance, and just skip this entire trip. We can stick with the mindset that it depends on us to change everything in our families that is not ideal. If we choose this—the default version of Advent—then with each passing day, Jesus, Mary and Joseph disappear farther and farther down the road.
Or—we can risk it all! We families who aspire to be holy can join the Holy Family as they set out. In our daily prayer time, we can meditate on the Advent scriptures, walking with Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem, carrying our common burdens and also partaking of our common joys. We can go to Bethlehem with the mindset that, when we arrive at our new home on Christmas Day, a home in which our family will dwell together with our almighty God, He will provide for us and change what needs to change.
And so we are finally led to experience their joy, despite the humble surroundings, when the Christ Child is born into their little home in Bethlehem. If we do risk it all on God, we give our families the greatest gift: a journey that ends, not just in fleeting Christmas joy for this year, but in safe footsteps to walk in for many different kinds of journeys to come.
In the end, of course, there is no perfect Advent. Just like there are no perfect families. But we hope that when this year’s journey is complete, though we know we’ll struggle on a daily basis, we’ll experience a deepened gratitude—for life, for God’s love, for our marriage and the miracle of each of our children, and for the chance to walk with you and your family as we all seek to make our homes a little taste of heaven—our own “Trinity House”—to share with others!
