So You Want To Go To?

Each year, during the season of Advent, the church sets off on a journey.
We begin to prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of the
Christ-child, so that this time he will have a proper place to be born.

And we think we know the way to Bethlehem. We can find it on the map. It's
not that far from Jerusalem, by today's standards; shouldn't be a problem.

But the problem is that so much has changed since our last visit. A whole
year has passed, a year that brought many changes in our lives, some of them
good, some of them not so good, some of them heartbreaking. The geographic
map of life has changed, and even old familiar places don't seem the same
any more. So maybe we could use a little help in finding our way back to
Bethlehem this year. That is, if you still want to go.

If we were to ask any of the writers of the gospels how to get to Bethlehem,
I think we might be surprised by their answer.