Sometimes, big things happen in faraway places. I believe that any place you go has the opportunity to shape your spirit and change your mind if you remain open to it. I come home from every trip more centered, more accepting, and at least a little evolved.
I can only imagine what Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem must have been like. Nine months pregnant, Mary had to sit on a donkey on a road similar in distance to traveling from Oklahoma City to Stillwater. All this, not for a fun babymoon, but for a census so that Rome could charge them taxes. Sounds fun, right? Not to me. Yet this trip would become one of the most incredible travel stories of all time.
It was Thanksgiving morning. I woke up, walked a few feet to the center bay window, and unfolded the metal shutters, revealing a bright autumn sky behind a waist-high Haussmannian iron railing. It was about 7 a.m. in Paris and there were only a few people walking past the patisserie across the street. It was still the middle of the night back in the States, hours before our friends and family would be turning on football and stuffing their turkeys for roasting.
I remember feeling dizzy, like something was different. I sat down quickly, turned to my husband, and stared in a way that all the white of my eyes was showing as my forehead wrinkled up. I sent him out into the sparse streets of the Latin Quarter for three things: a cup of coffee, pain au chocolat, and a pregnancy test.
We had a lot planned for the day – exploring Montmartre, climbing the Eiffel Tower, lunch near the Jardin de Luxembourg… but as it turned out, Thanksgiving Day 2017 had something much bigger than the Eiffel Tower in store for me. I was going to be a mom.
Remembering this and thinking on the Christmas story, I imagine what it was like for Mary. While she was not on a Thanksgiving vacation in Paris, her experience in Bethlehem no doubt wrote a story into her soul. Bethlehem is the place where she became a mother. It is the place our Savior was born. It became a second home. In a similar fashion, I regard Paris in such terms. It is in this place that my identity changed, my heart transformed, and the world became a much different place.
You may be traveling this holiday season; maybe you’re going 70 miles or 4,700. Either way, I challenge you to make memories there that write stories on your soul. Take a moment to travel to Bethlehem with Mary. Reflect on God’s miracles in your life. Sometimes, big things happen in faraway places… and I love it when that happens.
Beth Armstrong, Director of Adult Ministries
