“Get up, take the mother and child to Egypt.”
Matthew 2: 13
Not the kind of text you want to receive on Sunday afternoon. Actually, not a text you ever want to receive. “I just heard Francis and Jane’s home caught on fire,” it read. “Completely destroyed.” Francis and Jane teach at our elementary school. He’s our middle school history teacher; she works with our little ones. Committed people. Passionate about their work. Two years ago, Francis arrived for his initial job interview dressed as a revolutionary soldier. His excitement about history was contagious. We hired him on the spot. “A wood stove heated our home,” he explained to a few of us Tuesday morning. “I lit it in the evening and took the trash outside. I noticed the cap on the chimney had blown off. Embers were flying everywhere, landing on the roof.” Built in the late 1880’s , their old wood house burned like a tinder box. Twelve fire trucks couldn’t subdue the blaze. In less than an hour the structure was irrevocably damaged. “Just grateful we hadn’t gone to bed.” Not the way a family wants to usher in the holidays. Life can change abruptly.
Crisis tends to bring out the best and worst in people. I’m blessed to be part of a community that instinctively sees hope in the midst of despair—and doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty. People of hope are people who create a new and better futures for those whose circumstances break their hearts—even when faced with daunting obstacles. Our people got busy.
Within a few hours, teachers and leaders were organizing temporary housing, food provisions and replacement clothing. An empty intern house was quickly cleaned by willing staff. Before the embers had cooled on their old place, Francis and Jane were wrapped in clean sheets and sleeping in a new bed. Certainly not the Ritz-Carlton, but a working furnace, a leak-resistant roof and an abundance of hot water were a welcome reprieve on a chilly December evening without a home. “I have no idea how we would have handled this without everyone’s help,” shared Francis at our staff Christmas party a few days later. “The love, the support…unbelievable.” “We’re heading in a new direction,” he added, “not a direction we were expecting. Not a direction we chose. But we’re to see where it takes us. Having a lovingly community around us certainly makes it feel doable.”
Supportive relationships and faith, in times of adversity, are often the difference between a crash and landing or flying to new heights. I don’t believe God causes these catastrophes, but Giod can certainly enter these moments to write a better story when hearts are open to possibilities. I sense Francis and Jane will soar again able to embrace their uncertainty and poised to learn and grow on their new path.
Like life, the Christmas story is far more complicated than a miraculous birth, heavenly choirs and droves of uninvited guests. Immediately after the birth of Jesus, his father is warned: “Get up, take the child and his mother to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child and kill him.” Plans change. A new direction. Look like preschool for Jesus in a foreign country. The baby Jesus we celebrate is now a fugitive. Mary and Joseph are political asylum seekers running from a tyrannical king. “Get up! Take the child.” Not normal times for young parents. Protecting and nurturing this child now takes on divine urgency. They’re part of a much bigger story—Gods story. Imagine the course of human history resting in the hands of a couple of teenagers. Despite the risks, people are always God’s chosen instruments.
But they step up—with courage, with faith, with love. When hope for the world rests in their hands, Mary and Joseph do their part to secure the mission of Jesus. And like each generation before us, our calling remains just as urgent. Each waking hour, we are invited to carry Jesus in our hearts, our hands and our lives—bringing God’s light and love to all. That’s a gift our world needs this Christmas.
Grateful for each of you,
Bruce Main
Founder and President
Urban Promise, Camden, New Jersey
PS You can send words of encouragement to Francis and Jane at: fpaixao@urbanpromiseusa.org–it would mean a lot to them as they navigate this change of plans.