Make a Home

“It is God-With-Us. Not the God-Up-There somewhere who answers our prayers by lifting us out of our lives, but the God who comes to us in the midst of them—however far from home we are, however less than ideal our circumstances, however much or little our lives reflect the Christmas cards we send. That is where God is born, just there, in any cradle we will offer him, on any pile of straw we will pat together with our hands.” (from Home By Another Way by Barbara Brown Taylor)

I knew what would happen before I ever walked down the driveway.

If I had stayed in the backyard, John would have been able to get rid of the girl with the backpack without making any commitments.

But it seems I couldn’t help myself. Something about the girl drew me toward her.

Her name was Annette, and she was from the country of Estonia. She had been recruited for an “entrepreneurship” selling over-priced children’s books to Americans. By the time we met her, she was becoming disheartened. The job wasn’t panning out the way that she had hoped. Americans had other things to spend their money on. Which meant that she was rapidly burning through all of hers, paying for hotel rooms.

Thanks to John’s ability to disappoint, we did not end up with any over-priced books on our bookshelf. But, due to my inability to do so, we ended up with two Estonian girls living in our home for a month instead.

Annette and Inga didn’t need much from us, rushing out the door by 7:00 a.m. every morning and not returning until late into the evening. But we made sure that there was food available for them when they arrived. And I could never seem to fall asleep until they were both safely home for the night.

Looking back now, it’s hard to remember our rationale for welcoming two complete strangers into our home. It had simply felt like we were supposed to watch over them. So we said a crazy ‘yes’ before we stopped to think better of it.

This Advent, I find myself wondering if our experience with the Estonian girls doesn’t relate just a little to what Mary and Joseph went through. Perhaps they said a hasty yes to becoming the earthly parents of Jesus—before thinking about it long enough to do the rational thing—and refuse.