Year of Invitation

It’s Christmas time and the tree is trimmed, the stockings are hung and the smooth sounds of my favorite holiday jazz album are filtering through the house. The small nativity set that my mother gave me sits in a place of honor in the living area. I keep it where the boys can reach it and often catch my youngest son playing with baby Jesus or rearranging it into scenes that come alive in his mind. Recently, I noticed that he rearranged it so that no one could see the baby Jesus figurine because of the wise men crowding around him. I reached out to change it and then stopped and wondered, “Did the wise men get out of the way when they were worshipping so that others could see the baby Jesus, too?”

Do I?  Do you?

Mary did. Even in her exhausted and vulnerable state, Mary understood that the child she bore was not for her- He was for the world. So it was that when the world showed up on her doorstep before she could even find proper attire for the child-god, she did not hide him but rather invited the world inside her sanctuary to worship. Can we do any different? Let us be inviters in the year to come. When the world darkens the doorsteps of our homes searching for something small that they cannot name, let us show them Jesus. When the world finds themselves in our neighborhoods,  when they come smelling like unwashed shepherds and weary worn from their trials and long journeys of their own making then let us, like Mary, throw the barn doors open and let the light spill into the streets. Let us invite them in to our safe places to worship with us.  

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,


you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,


and the glory of your people Israel.”

-Simeon’s Song, Luke 2:29-32