They caught my eye in a Guatemalan street market: three kneeling women and a bright star on a painted wooden fish. On the other side of the fish, there were farmers bearing gifts in a field of cornstalks – bread, fruit and a load of wood. Practical gifts. The kind that three wise women would have brought. In our creche now, they remind me of working, year after year, with villagers in the highlands of Chimaltenango to help them build elementary schools after the Guatemalan Peace Accords promised primary education to the indigenous people for the first time! In each village, their laughter, hard work and generous affection touched all of us who thought we were the one bearing gifts.
Epiphany marks the beginning of a new year, and I am grateful for small things here at home: a plate of cookies from across the hall; a phone call to say that a friend is safely admitted to the infirmary where they can monitor her spiking blood pressure; last year’s Christmas letter sent again by my nephew, with red-pen corrections to describe their circumscribed activities this year. These personal gestures of love and local caring are the warp threads of human community.
The weft is gaudy and bright, loud and obvious. It’s the big public story of political turmoil and pandemic heartbreak. One can hear overtones of our public story in the words of King Herod telling the wise men to let him know where the newborn king was, so he could also pay homage to the child.* It rings of deceit, subterfuge, and barely concealed threats.
But, being warned in a dream, the three kings went home “by another way.” They were wise enough to listen and learn, and to sidestep open conflict with Herod. That, of course, did not curb his hatred and fear, but for the newborn child, it was enough. The holy family was safe, and saved for a hopeful future.
And in that small quiet ending of this Epiphany story, I hear a blessing and see light beginning to break on the horizon.
–Marjory Zoet Bankson, Editor of InwardOutward
–What “small gifts” have you received recently?
–Have you offered yourself in a different way this year?
–Is there “another way” for you to move into the new year?
