The image of “journey” has always appealed to me: being on a faith journey. Rather than thinking of this as an individual’s task, I imagine it as a communal pilgrimage. We seek to go where God is leading. It is a prayerful wandering. Like being in the car for a long journey, we will sing songs, play games, look for signs, drive each other crazy, and wonder out loud, “Are we there yet?”  

Here’s the thing: we never arrive. I inherited a plaque that says, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” I don’t know why we do this, but we can work hard to get to the place where we imagine life will be easy, we’ll have it all figured out, or we can just sit back and enjoy. Truth is, life is always challenging, and we never get to sit back and put the journey on autopilot. When we do, we often find ourselves in a ditch.

One of my favorite images in Scripture is from Psalm 139: “If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.” Sheol is a spiritual pit where one cannot see God. Sometimes, we decide to camp out there. We roll out the sleeping bag and try to warm ourselves by a fire, but we feel cold inside. I love the fact that the psalmist reminds us, God is fireside. There is no place where we can escape God, even when we try. As soon as we recognize that, the fire can warm our weary bones.

At Advent, we remember Jesus who was born into the muck and mire of this world — that can feel a lot like Sheol — to remind us that God is with us. God is on the journey. We are not alone.

I’m excited to celebrate “God with us” with you this Christmas. I look forward to lighting candles and lifting them high, to letting the flames of faith and the warmth of God’s Spirit remind us of who we are and, whose we are, and giving us light for the journey.

Robin Miller Currás