There was an urgency to his whisper: “Mary, wake up!”
Like any new mother, she was instantly awake, asking, “What’s wrong? Where’s Jesus?”
“He’s fine. But we have to go. I’ll explain on the way.”
Her husband’s face, lit only by the moonlight, was deadly serious. But it was also calm and confident.
Steve Cothran
They both had seen that look before. He had seen it once in her eyes, and she had seen it once in his. And here it was again.
There would be plenty of time to hear what the midnight messenger had told Joseph in his dream, but right now she rose without worry, rolled up their mat and scooped up the sleeping child without waking him.
Mary asked about the vision only once during their journey. Crazy old Herod was feeling threatened. By a child.
So like a petulant child, he would lash out and destroy anything remotely reminding him of that threat. His tantrum would take untold toddlers with him.
Mary asked only once because her empathy for the agony other mothers and families would endure was palpable. And as she put one foot in front of the other, she held her son close and pondered in her heart that unimaginable terror.
And so not by choice, but by necessity, the family began their arduous trek. Why else would someone flee the comfort of home and family, braving the desert and the unknowns of a new destination?
Only a dehydrated fool refusing to drink deeply of living water during his own desert travels would’ve suggested Joseph’s intent was to take the job of a carpenter in Cairo.
No. Survival — for his young child and his family — was his sole motivation.
This motivation, along with the clothes on their backs and some food for the journey, would have to sustain them because this was all they could carry. And it was all that would carry them through the darkness covering their flight to a faraway land.
“And so not by choice, but by necessity, the family began their arduous trek.”
Although strangers, they were welcomed all along their way as custom demanded. Everyone, after all, has been a stranger once.
The kindness and understanding they received coupled with bread and wine was a refreshing oasis on their way from death to life. And so Egypt became home for a while.
Of course, the family could have been refused refuge. They could have been imprisoned for trespassing. They could have been deported to Bethlehem where a madman awaited.
But they were dealt none of these insults. Thank God.
Years later, a letter to Hebrew Christians would remind believers: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without realizing it.”
Angels? Without knowing their significance, the Egyptians welcomed not angels, but Jesus and his family, providing for their welfare and survival until they could finally safely return home.
Thank God for the hospitality of strangers! Were it not for that simple gift — the gift of gracious hospitality and acceptance — we might never have heard of these travelers who transformed history.
Then we might be excused for rudeness to refugees.
But not now.
Steve Cothran is a native of Greenville, S.C., and holds degrees from Furman University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Campbell Divinity School. He has served churches in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, as well as six years in Kentucky where he and his wife, Nancy, were on the same staff together. He has written curriculum for Smyth & Helwys, CBF and d365, enjoys writing regular columns for the Newnan Times-Herald, and dreams of being the oldest cast member on Saturday Night Live.