Step Out On A Road

The world outside is covered with white and we are well into the Advent season. Our direction points clearly to Bethlehem where we will, once again, encounter the holy.

Not Entirely The Same This Time

While this road may be familiar it is never entirely the same this time as it was the last time. We are different people – older, wiser, a little more tired; or perhaps we are walking a little lighter this year. The composition of those who travel with us is also different – some are new to the journey, some have left, some have returned after traveling another road for a while. But always the journey begins with a star. That light that calls us to step out on the road and navigate toward something amazing!

That First Step

The birth of the Christ is really about beginnings. It is about possibilities that lie in the ordinary, like the birth of a child. The journey we take is about that first step when we have the courage to begin walking. Without that moment of decision we stay rooted where we are and we never discover what lies just beyond the horizon. We miss those surprise moments that come, unexpected yet filled with grace and transformation.

In the gospel named for Matthew we read:

“And there, ahead of them, went the star they had seen at its rising” (2:9)

Jan Richardson in her book “ Circle of Grace” writes these words:

“If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it,
Might never dare the first step that propels you
From the place you have known toward the place you do not know.

Call it one of the mercies of the road:
That we see it only by stages as it opens before us,
As it comes into our keeping, step by single step.

There is nothing for it but to go,
And by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes:

To be faithful to the next step;
To rely on more than the map;
To heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
To follow the star that only you will recognize;
To keep an open eye for the wonders that attend the path;
To press on beyond distractions, beyond fatigue,
Beyond what would tempt you from the way.

There are vows that only you will know:
The secret promises for your particular path
And the new ones you will need to make
When the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen.

Keep them. Break them. make them again;
Each promise becomes part of the path,
Each choice creates the road that will
Take you to the place where at last you will kneel
To offer the gift most needed –
The gift that only you can give –
Before turning to go home by another way.”

My prayer is that you will have eyes to see the star that beckons you to move from this place onto a road that can lead to something more than you could ever imagine!

Blessings
Valerie