Epiphany

Epiphany is when the wise men arrived and saw Jesus for the first time after his birth. Most scholars agree that Jesus was a "young child" when they arrived instead of an infant and I wonder if Mary and Joseph hung around in the stable all that time cause you always see them there with the shepherds in the pictures and you'd think that by that time the shepherds would be pretty tight with the holy family, but they always look as awestruck as the wise men. Then there is the whole fleeing from Herod part and you wonder how long that big star was up in the sky. It is all very chronologically confusing to me. And you've got to wonder what Mary was really pondering in her heart. Was she thinking, "What a mistake this Joseph was. Talk about no plan.. Oh let's just show up in Bethlehem and hope we can find somewhere to stay. Oh I guess you'll just have to go through labor on the back of a donkey. Oh this barn with poopy hay looks good. Hey why don't you use this slop trough to put the King of the universe in?" I'm sure she had buyer's remorse more than a few times with that one. I get pissed if Josh and I go on a date and he doesn't have a plan, cause we sit around saying I don't know what do you want to do?...but Joseph takes the cake this time. Having a baby right before Christmas has been a sobering reminder of the hardship that Mary overcame. She has to do the whole birth thing and then face her "postpartum" stage in a poopy barn. Talk about grounds for postpartum depression. No lactation consultant, no midwife even, just "All Star Joe" over here to figure it out with her. I'm sure she was having a hard time trusting the angel's words. But if she had been unwilling.. if she had given up or bailed on even one detail of the way it happened, what a different implication there would be. As it is anyone is welcome, the poorest most insignificant person could enter without threat and receive. God's plans are a mystery and looking back on the past year and ahead to the new one, I'll be interested to see what absurdity God will make good.