Incarnation in the desert
If God can be born in the wilderness, God can be born in the dry places of our lives.
Christmas begins in the desert. It ends there, too.
I know that many of our traditional carols sing of frosty winds of the bleak midwinter, and that pine trees and evergreen wreaths are symbols of the season.
But I also know that Christmas begins—and ends—in the desert. From the cry of the prophet Isaiah in his people’s exile to the birth of Mary and Joseph’s child in that barn in Bethlehem, the Christmas story is a desert story.
