To Bethlehem we come

The course of the Advent and its violet road-map

was determined two millennia ago.

We who claim our places among his disciples

walk the Coming-Season’s famous annual path to Bethlehem.

Was he even born there?

Perhaps / probably not:

it doesn’t matter.

We tread our Advent road toward Bethlehem

to meet with shepherds and other disrerputable people

to sing the songs of the coming of our friend and mentor.

We travel, recalling those irresistible demands of the ancient bureaucracy

to be counted, numbering ourselves

among those blessed to share in his suffering.

We bypass Jerusalem,

knowing that there are many places where truth is hidden,

that deeper truth awaits its revelation,

and that our ultimate destination will, one day,

include that great and troubled city.

Our journeying eyes search out inns and stables,

knowing that God and Spirit and other mysteries

will be found in the most unlikely places.

The city of David calls to us with the power of its history,

but we come, knowing that the new story being birthed

will be a far deeper drama

of love, generosity and sacrifice.

To Bethlehem we make our Advent journey,

with gratitude, wonder, and trepidation.

© Ken Rookes 2018

One step, another.

One step, another.

Travelling, one step, another;

pause. Glance around,

does anyone else seem to be heading

in the same direction? No.

Each new step

must bear the weight of a new decision,

an evaluation that balances

the original sense that someone

or something has called me out

beyond my comfortable self,

with the feeling of absurdity;

that the journey exists in the first place.

The fist place, of course,

had been long taken

by one who saw his path through

to its difficult conclusion.

Travelling across

a sometimes bleak landscape,

dotted with the sorrowful tracks

of those who have wandered aimlessly,

he proceeded to plant his own

intentional footprints of compassion;

small illuminations

that point defiantly to the possibilities

or pilgrimage.

Those who also follow take heart

from their defiant warmth

and are encouraged to add their own.

Ken Rookes 2010