CPTnet
23 December 2005
IRAQ: Mary, Joseph and a new worldview
[Note: Maxine Nash is currently serving on CPT's team in Baghdad and
awaiting news of Jim Loney, Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden and Tom Fox.]
During this time of waiting for news about my friends who are kidnapped, I
can't help but think about Mary and Joseph.
It must have been an agonizing thing for them to make a trip from Nazareth
to Bethlehem when Mary was near her time of giving birth. I can't help but
wonder if they were angry at having to make such a
difficult journey to comply with the orders of an illegal occupier in
their country. I know I would have been. And then to get to Bethlehem and
be told that there was no place to stay would have added fuel to the fire.
But somehow, I suspect that all of that anger vanished when Jesus was
born. Who has attended a birth and not realized that everything else pales
in comparison to the joy of new life? The miracle of every birth bathes
the world in a cleansing light.
I feel like I need a new outlook. After two years of living in Iraq, I
find myself discouraged and angry about the situation. And every
helicopter that flies over (like one just did) reminds me that two and a
half years after the fall of Saddam there is still an occupying force from
my own country here, one that has no stated intentions of leaving anytime
soon.
Did Mary and Joseph feel the same way? Were they angry at the Romans?
Were they worried for the future of their child who would be born into
such a situation? I suspect their feelings were similar to what many
Iraqis feel every single day.
I'm waiting for the re-emergence of my colleagues, and anticipating a new
view of the world through this miracle.
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