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'It's a far cry from being in a stable,' Benajmin Pargman's father says of efforts to keep his newborn son comfortable.
Glen Johnston says the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph comforts him as he deals with being homeless.
Like Jesus, Verihaki Mathias, second from left, had to flee his homeland as a boy. The native of Burundi and former refugee is celebrating his first Christmas in the United States.
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The arrival of son Benjamin less than a month ago brought the story of the Nativity home for Lindsay and Randy Pargman. 'Scriptures that you've heard a hundred times all of a sudden have a brand-new light,' Lindsay says. |
In area churches, aspiring actors don bed sheets and bathrobes, tinsel halos and cardboard wings to re-enact the "good tidings of great joy."
But the Nativity of Jesus Christ in the second chapter of Luke has an earthy, real-life side that still resonates today.
About 2 million Americans seek shelter every night as Joseph and Mary did.
New parents struggle to deal with demands of their first baby.
And in war-torn countries, people flee their homes, fearing they'll be killed if they stay--just as Mary and Joseph took the toddler Jesus to Egypt to escape King Herod.
"Many Christians care about the happy Jesus in the cradle," said the Rev. Allen Fisher of The Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg. "Few really want to take the next step."
But the Nativity is more than a story, he said. It's a reality, which doesn't come nicely packaged in a creche.
"I never cease to be amazed at the power of the story to humble people, that this God would actually come to be with us," Fisher said.
The holy family faced difficulties harsher than most.
"We don't understand why God does what God does," said the Rev. Larry Haun of Fredericksburg Baptist Church. "But we do understand what we're supposed to be doing: Living a right relationship with God and living a right relationship with our brothers and sisters."
Both Haun and Fisher said the Christmas story shows a definite responsibility for social justice. The lesson continues today.
Fisher said, "Jesus made that clear in his teaching. He had a clear preference for the weak and the distressed, the disenfranchised, the orphans and the children."
THERE WAS NO ROOM
Glen Johnston likes to remember that, eventually, Mary and Joseph found shelter.
First, they found it in a stable. And later they had a home to raise Jesus.
"We have to go through it in steps," said the man in his 40s who sleeps in a tent in Fredericksburg.
Some nights, he finds a warm place at the cold-night shelter at the Bragg Hill Family Life Center.
To Johnston, the churches that make up Micah Ecumenical Ministries serve as the innkeeper now for the chronic homeless.
They provide not just physical relief but spiritual help, he said.
"Without spirit, without people opening their hearts and giving, there wouldn't be any living," Johnston said.
That generosity included two Christmas parties Johnston attended at Trinity Episcopal Church and Fredericksburg Baptist Church.
At Trinity, Micah gave presents to Johnston and the other homeless. He opened an almost 3-foot-tall stocking stuffed with underwear, socks, deodorant, soap and shampoo.
"All things I need," Johnston said. When you're young, he said, you get what you want. But when you grow up, you get the necessities.
As a child, he spent Christmas with his family and relatives, opening presents and eating elaborate dinners. His middle-class family didn't shower him with toys, but he usually got what he wanted.
Two years ago, he became homeless when he fled an abusive friendship. Since then, Johnston said, his spiritual life has become much richer.
"I always believed in God but I never was as deep into it as I am now," he said.
He attends three church services every Sunday and got baptized in the Rappahannock River this summer.
The baptism washed his old life and his sins away, Johnston said. And it was a sign that he had chosen to follow Jesus.
Christ, he said, showed people how to treat the homeless, "with open hearts, a lot of kindness."
AND SHE BROUGHT FORTH HER FIRSTBORN SON
Joseph and Mary traveled by donkey to Bethlehem where Mary gave birth in a stable. They laid the baby Jesus in a manger.
Randy and Lindsay Pargman drove to the hospital to have their first son Nov. 27.
"Parenthood is still stressful," Randy said. "It makes their situation look way more intense. We have it so easy."
"Oh, yeah," agreed Lindsay as she rocked baby Benjamin to sleep at their Stafford County kitchen table. "If he gets gassy, we put Mylicon drops in him."
"If he doesn't like cold wipes on his bottom, we use the wipe warmer," Randy said. "It's a far cry from being in a stable. It makes you wonder things, like if baby Jesus spit up."
Even before Benjamin's birth, Lindsay began to think differently about the Nativity. The season was coming up, and they read the familiar Bible verses.
"Scriptures that you've heard a hundred times all of a sudden have a brand-new light," Lindsay said.
For Randy, the Christmas story became really personal one night shortly after Benjamin came home from the hospital.
It was 2:30 a.m., Benjamin cried and wouldn't fall asleep. Randy put on music, including Christmas carols, to soothe him.
"Away in a Manger" came through the speakers, and Randy thought about Joseph.
Randy himself felt instantly protective of Benjamin and Lindsay, and he figured Joseph felt the same way.
"It must've been really crazy for Joseph to be out of his house, in this new place," Randy said. "He must have been going crazy trying to take care of his family in this new place--plus the whole immaculate conception thing must mess with your mind."
They've both come to see the Nativity in a more gritty, realistic light.
While people sometimes think of it as a romantic story, Lindsay points out that pregnancy and labor are rough, messy times.
"It's not a very pretty process itself, then add a stable," she said.
But that reality also makes them feel the power of the Christmas story.
"He could've been born as a prince in a palace and accomplish the same thing, but he didn't," Randy said.
"I think it's a beautiful display of love that he was willing to make that sacrifice for everyone, to be helpless and susceptible and be willing to experience humanity," Lindsay said. "To have that much love and compassion is just phenomenal."
HE TOOK THE YOUNG CHILD AND HIS MOTHER BY NIGHT
Jesus was a toddler when his parents fled to Egypt to escape King Herod, who wanted to kill the child the wise men said was the king of the Jews.
Verihaki Mathias was 4 when his family fled the Tutsis in central Africa.
Most of his relatives were killed in their native Burundi when Mathias, his mother, father and older brother arrived in a refugee camp in Tanzania in 1972.
He grew up in the camp, attending elementary school until he had to drop out because his father couldn't afford tuition. He eventually married and had four children, now ages 3 through 12.
In 2005, United Nations officials came to the camp and said they would try to get the refugees who had been there the longest to America.
"This day was like Christmas," Mathias, now 39, said.
This summer, he, his wife and his children came to Fredericksburg, where they live in a townhouse in Bragg Hill. He's working part time, but wants to get a better job and provide for himself and others.
"I have to be a good person with a good heart," he said. "I help when people need it."
His family is among some 200 refugees in the Fredericksburg area. They are mostly from Africa, here legally, invited by the United States because they face death, torture or persecution in their homelands.
"The parents of Jesus moved to a new place and so have we," Mathias said with his trademark grin.
He learned the Christmas story as a child, attending church in refugee camps. He has heard it again at Fredericksburg Baptist Church, where his family goes now.
He feels the story more personally because he knows what it is like to be chosen. Mathias said God saved Jesus while other male children were killed.
Today, there are millions of refugees in Africa, and he sees it as a miracle for God to deliver his family to Fredericksburg.
They are celebrating their first American Christmas. In Tanzania, they celebrated with food, drink and song. Candy or soda were special treats.
Mathias often left the camps to work in the city as a construction worker because he wanted to afford Christmas treats and necessities for his family such as toothpaste, soap or other toiletries.
This year, Mathias anticipated Christmas with a childlike wonder. The holiday dominates his small living room. The Salvation Army gave presents to his children, and volunteers donated Christmas trees and decorations.
"This year will be different because of the good hearts of the people here," Mathias said. "We're always praying and thanking God for where we are and for the lovely community. We're always praying for them."
Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
