Greetings All:
I'm picking up my study with Mary, Joseph and Jesus moving to Egypt. And as young parents, you can imagine that they still had to be concerned with food, housing, employment and expenses while trying not to draw too much attention to themselves; and yet the Lord provided for them during their stay.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Herod has snapped, straight lost his mind. So mad because the Magi vamped on him that he decides to tear up every family in Bethlehem and the vicinity because of pride and fear of this child king. ...I repeat: Herod decides to send his young soldiers off to kill other folks boys to show how powerful he is...hmmm....so Herod launches his campaign against an entire community to get at the child savior.
But wait, I'm stuck here for a minute...Herod was allowed to dispatch a group of young men to invade a community and kill the male babies and break the hearts of a community of a parents---it's like a nightmare ripped from TODAY'S HEADLINES. So how do we deal with this?
Well, the text shows us a few things. The text shows us the contrast between these men. Joseph moved to save a child, Herod moved to destroy a generation of children. Joseph put God first while Herod put himself first. Joseph sacrificed himself, Herod literally sacrificed other.
The thing that I realized is that perhaps the lesson for us today is that we must be careful of the modern day "Herods" in our midst and in ourselves. How often do we allow the Herods in our own lives---and in ourselves--- to devour OUR children or children close to us?
Here, I mean "the Herods" in all of our lives that do things or allow things such as : leaving our children in front of the computer or television; allowing them to eat unhealthy foods for our convenience; inactivity, chaotic living spaces and neglect of exercise and our own health; unwillingness to spend times with our families BEYOND SHOPPING AND MEDIA CONSUMPTION; ignoring gang violence, parent-teacher conferences and Sunday school; turning our heads and saying nothing as we allow our children to be exposed to abusive relatives, hateful language, cruel jokes and drug, alcohol or pornography use in their presence--- all leaving our children at risk to die mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically DAILY.
I offer these observations just to remind us (myself included) that instead of demonizing Herod, we should be careful to consider how we are putting the young people in our charge at risk because or our actions, our inaction or our silence.
Be well!
---Nicole
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