Advent Devotional - Day 7

DECEMBER 7 – Luke 2: 1-8
By: Matt LaBarbera

If traveling in modern day America is a constant source for griping, then holiday air travel is a lode of shallow depth and extra special abundance. With so many of us set to travel each Advent season, the complaints will be familiar to all, even those who have somehow escaped experiencing them personally. Standing in the security line, waiting your turn to be blasted with (a totally healthy amount of) microwave radiation. The swirl of people hustling in every direction – sneezing and coughing – making you long for the slippery kiss of the pre-Communion hand sanitizer on your palms! And we haven’t even gotten to the delays, the terrible food, and the press of people jostling for seats and trying not to crush each other with their ridiculously sized “carry-ons.” Love thy neighbor? Not when he’s about to take my leg room!

Yet, when I have a moment to step back in an airport terminal this time of year, I really do feel a strange sense of camaraderie. The maddening crowd is filled with people whose journeys are all different, but whose destinations are all the same. You can see
the expectation on their faces. The return to a childhood home. The joy of reuniting with beloved in-laws and extended family. A respite from work and a chance for peace and reflection. I wonder if Mary and Joseph had similar feelings on their journey from Galilee to Bethlehem? The difficulties and terrors of that seventy mile trek across first century Israel would surely silence our grumbling about half size sodas and crying babies. But at the same time, the byways and inns were packed with people all traveling for the Roman census. I wonder if amongst the throngs on the road there was a little of that same sense of common purpose?

For those who must travel this year, let us remember Mary and Joseph, stuck on the road those many centuries ago. Let’s look to our companions on the road with the compassion of Mary and remember what Jesus said was the most important commandment of all. Keep the joy of Christ’s birth in your heart and mind as you go from Point A to Point B and He will give you the strength to see the next person coming down the aisle as more than just a nuisance, but as a neighbor.

A prayer for travel: Father God, please remember those who are far from home who are unable to travel this Christmas season. For those who do travel, please grant them safety and give them compassion for all the neighbors who you bring across their path. Amen.