This keeps popping up on my Facebook feed,
    so far as a T-shirt, a Christmas ornament, and a lawn sign:

        Rejoice in the birth
            of a dark-skinned,
        Middle-Eastern,
            undocumented immigrant.

I laughed heartily when I first read it,
    because, after all, it's true,
we are rejoicing in exactly this, and,
   it targets (not subtly)
those who would twist Jesus' life and teaching
    to reject those who are foreign (different),
including the immigrants among us.

My next thought was:
    That's really politicizing Christmas.

And my next thought was:
    Too late! That ship sailed two millennia ago.

Revisit the Annunciation in Luke 1:26-38:

    Gabriel:
        Surprise! You're going to have a baby,
            and not with Joseph, with God.
        He's going to bring a new and forever kingdom,
            and it will radically supplant the powers of this world.

But that's only the start;
    look again the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55:

    Mary:
        It's a revolution–
            food for the hungry, empty hands for the rich,
        God's favor for the lowly, nothing for the arrogant and boastful.
            Everything upended!

The Magnificat is an astonishing challenge
    to our values and goals–
my values and goals.
    Listen and be unnerved, humbled.

I gaze again into the stable,
    where Mary and Joseph
gaze serenely at the blue-eyed baby.
    I know they were all dark-skinned and Middle-Eastern,
and I translate that in my head,
    and I also know Mary knows what the future holds,
what pain and darkness will follow.
    Surely she has shared that with Joseph.
This night, perhaps, all is calm and bright,
    but very soon comes their desperate flight.

Text and image © 2022 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.