Yesterday, I invited you to think about what you want to carry in the backpack of your life to the manger this year. Part of the invitation is to empty out what you’ve been carrying so far. There is a great line in the hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” that goes, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” So, what hopes do you carry? This could be personally, relationally, spiritually, and for our community and country. What fears do you carry? Again, these could be for yourself medically or relationally, or for our world?
We all have an invisible backpack. Seth Godin reminds us that you don’t know what anyone else is carrying in theirs. We may think we know, but we don’t. And often, we can be unaware of what we carry in our own lives. Before you start down the pathway to where Jesus is laid in a manger, first sit with your one wild and precious life to see what has accumulated in your backpack this last life. I remember when our kids were young, we had to go through their backpacks often because papers and trash and forgotten items would all congregate at the bottom…and you don’t want to leave a banana peel for weeks on end.
But how many of us have a metaphorical banana peel that has been lying around and we’ve been carrying out ~ maybe unaware. To sit with your life this week, asking, What am I holding onto right now? Or make two columns: hopes and fears. Or think back over the last year of what brought you joy and love and peace, where you felt hurt, wounded, and treated as less than a beloved child of God. May such sacred pondering be a way that sets your sights and hearts on this 25th day of November for all that we will celebrate one month from today. Amen.
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