Homesick

A few years back, I made it a summer goal to only read Nebraska authors. I quickly fell in love with Bess Streeter Aldrich's "A Lantern In Her Hands." One of the things that really spoke to me in that book was how the protagonist, Abbie Deal, leaves her family in Iowa with the promise to return. Her new husband takes her to Nebraska, where life happens and she never is able to return to her family in Iowa. As a transplant myself, I find myself so blessed by current technologies like email, social networking and Skype that keep me connected to my family. However, Abbie didn't have these luxuries. She must have been homesick indeed. Now, I know that she is a fictional character, but isn't that very typical of many pioneer women who left everything familiar to follow the westward call with their husbands?

Well, it hit me this Christmas that life kind of took a similar turn for Mary. She was living her life, presumably still under the shelter of her parents' home in Nazareth when Joseph was summoned to Bethlehem to obey Caesar's edict regarding the census. Certainly, the baby wouldn't be born while she was gone. I imagine her reassuring her parents, "We'll be back before it's the baby's time. Don't worry about us. Joseph will take care of me." Well, we all know the story didn't quite turn out that way. Was Mary caught off guard when they entered the crowded city and she had no place to rest from the piercing contractions? Did she notice the stench of the animals in the stable cave where the Messiah made His earthly entrance into the world?

We know from Luke 2:21 that they must have traveled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem after the birth of Christ, because He was presented in the temple on His eighth day to be circumcised. In Matthew 2, the Magi appear from the East. Tradition tells us that the Christ child was probably just past toddlerhood when they arrived. So, here are Mary, Joseph and Jesus, now staying in a house in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:11). I imagine the accommodations were nicer than the stable, and Mary must have enjoyed establishing her small household. But shortly after this visit, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt (Matt. 2:13). The holy family stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod, when they finally returned to Nazareth. I don't know how long this would have been, but Luke 2:41 tells us that Jesus' parents took Him every year to Jerusalem during Passover.

Still, can you imagine the stories that Mary had for her mom when they finally returned? She was storing so much inside her heart...the birth of her first child in, shall we say, unusual circumstances; the visits from the shepherds; gifts from the Magi; fleeing to another country from a murderous official. I'm not sure how much time passed, but this seems to be more like years than weeks.

I wonder what Mary would have done if she would have been able to pick up a phone and pour these things out to her mom. Certainly the birth of Jesus was lifechanging for her. I had never considered all that happened after she told her parents goodbye on her way to the census.

I guess my occasional bouts of homesickness just don't compare...