Mary and Joseph have gone AWOL

This morning, I came to tidy away the nativity figures from the top of our (now mostly eaten) Christmas cake.

Mary and Joseph are missing.

They were not edible . so I do hope no one nibbled them. I interrogated the most most likely suspect but under pressure he only yawned and looked at me with his usual enigmatic vacancy.

I do hope he didn’t eat them. I’m far happier thinking that they have just genuinely gone AWOL, swanned off into the sunset or rather found some dusty corner of my house in which to reside and get on with their lives contentedly. After all they have been in the public eye a bit too much just lately: what with giving birth to the Messiah and outwitting Herod’s henchmen, they’ve had a pretty bad time of it.  They deserve a  bit of quiet normality.

Their sudden absence is a funny and timely reminder that none of us should think of ourselves as indispensable. It is a good and wonderful thing when we are called to play a part in God’s story but we must always remember it’s his story not ours. It’s doesn’t do to think of ourselves too highly or ‘big up our part’. There is only one Messiah, and we are not him. 

Perhaps, maybe around mid December next year, they might come out of hiding? (Assuming Bob the dog is as innocent as he looks)