The Journey to Bethlehem

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By Doris Garcia Rivera
Interim Executive Director

I have often experienced Advent as a season of quiet reflection, of expecting, of awaiting Hope. But it has also been one of the busiest periods of the year. I know the story at heart. And yet, every year it amazes me how – the quietness and movements essential to the journeys within this story also become part of our own journeys.

It was 2006, and that journey took me to “El Jardin” (the Garden) a Tsotsil community in the mountains of Chiapas to share Christmas with Pastor Antonio as a missionary working with International Ministries. Alongside our brothers and sisters, we sang to Jesus. Wrapped up by the unhurried and rhythmic Mayan accent we talked and shared tamales and black coffee. Under the zinc roof and dirt floor of Antonio’s wooden shack house with only a table, several chairs and a hammock for furniture; there were no shopping malls, no “ajoro,” (rush), no gifts, no lights, no Christmas tree. There was only the traditional woodstove to warm us and the light of the Milky Way shining in the sky. That Christmas night was a different one! One where I end up in a different place as a human being.

Joseph journeyed. He was told (Mt 1:18-23) to accompany Mary and to receive her and her son. Joseph was to become a father and a husband, to become someone sustaining two very vulnerable persons – a “pregnant” mother and a fatherless son in a highly patriarchal society. He received a call to incarnate, to become one with Mary and her son, Jesus-Emmanuel, unknowingly to follow God’s missionary model. The journey took him farther than Bethlehem. I can only imagine Joseph’s struggles as he Moves Beyond his Barriers and comes to be in a different place as a human being.

As we approach this last Advent Sunday, I think about my life journey and where I am today. Never would I have imagined that the year after that 2006 Christmas, BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz would become a faithful partner in my ministry; one that has lasted to this day. As peacemakers our journeys have crossed and have taken us to places we never imagined to do amazing things. We have also journeyed to places we didn’t want to be. But one thing sets my heart at rest - how quietly the Spirit has Moved me to where I am now and how Jesus-Emmanuel has been present in the midst of a pandemic that shattered the global economy and changed millions of lives.

This Christmas will certainly be different. For many it will be more quiet, maybe lonely or sad. Others will find ways to virtually connect and joyfully celebrate. The vaccine for COVID 19 is here, and I am amazed at the intersections of lives and events that made this possible. Our journey has been a rough one, but again, Hope becomes our horizon to embrace.

Where has the journey taken you? I pray that wherever you are today, the thought of the manger and its promise blesses you and guides you as a peacemaker to become “light.”

May there be Hope!

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Por Doris Garcia Rivera
Directora Ejecutiva Interina

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