Celebrities on reality television programmes often talk about the ‘J’ word as it has become known. They are referring of course to the journey they have been on as they have learned to dance or bake or live in the jungle… the list could go on. We may think of journeys in the more conventional meaning – an exciting holiday to a destination that we have longed to visit, or a voyage on a cruise liner visiting exotic named ports, going to a place nearer home because we have never been there before…
There are other types of journey too – to visit a new grandchild for the first time, to meet up with a friend we haven’t seen for ages. Or to see someone who is ill, or to attend the funeral of someone dear to us…
At this time of year we may think of ourselves on a journey towards Christmas, with all its fevered pace and preparations, lists of dozens of things to do, and the countdown of the Advent calendar.
The journey we usually think about at this time is the Journey of the Magi, or Wise Men. We may be more familiar with their arrival at the Stable, we may have been a Wise Man in our school production of the Nativity Play, although the Church makes their arrival happen at Epiphany in January. Late for the main event.
Of course, we are not certain.
The Journey of the Magi – what a treacherous, difficult journey that must have been for them.
TS Eliot’s poem The Journey of the Magi:
‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey and such a long journey
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter….
A hard time we had of it.’
All to find a poor, dank, smelly stable, the beasts sharing the space with the Babe in Bethlehem, not at all the surroundings the three Kings were used to. But nonetheless they worshipped Jesus, bringing gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh. They joined with the angels and the shepherds in the presence of the Saviour of the world, the Prince of Peace.

Rev Frances Forshaw,
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Birnam