Let's pick up the story after Joseph get's the word from God to move the family from Egypt back to Nazareth because King Herod had dies which is the Nativity finale.
Then Nada.
Nothing about what kind of house they had ... if Mary had to get a second job because carpentry doesn't make ends meet ... whether little Jesus played in little league sling shot competition, had a best friend or struggled with puberty.
It's twelve years before we know what happens next.
Jesus goes to Church and likes it so much that when the family leaves, he stays behind ... and it takes Mary and Joseph 3 days to realize the boy's not with them ... which makes you wonder about how good they were as parents.
Today the Department of Family and Children Services would be called in and Jesus placed in foster care.
Joseph and Mary did go back, drug him out and took him home but we don't know if he was spanked, grounded or was punished at all!
We know nothing about his teen years.
Does he engage in camel races with the boys, smoke and act bad ass, struggle with acne or is smooth with the girls.
Is he forced to help Joseph around the shop after school ... does he go to school at all? ... was he a Mamma's boy ... fight with his brothers (Joseph and Mary had four more boys) ... get beat up because he wasn't one to join a click ... or have a steady girlfriend?
Did he wrestle with his sexuality?
How old was he when he moved into his own place? ... did he have a room mate? ... they throw parties?
What kind of music did he listen to ... Beatles or Stones?
Or did he get something out of Rap?
We'd love to know wouldn't we?
But the Bible is completely silent as another 22 years pass.
You'd think after the great happenings of Christmas things were just picking up speed but God goes stealth.
None of the Gospels have anything to say until years later.
All we have after Christmas is God's silence ... though we have a million questions demanding answers.
Isn't that the way life really is though.
We believe in God, or we don't, and we've seen enough in the craziness of life that miracles happen ... barren women get pregnant ... men leave town at just the right time before all Hell breaks loose ... strangers pay it forward leaving us astonished ... some nights are so glorious we swear Angels are singing ... baby's are born in Taxi cabs, outside in cardboard boxes and in mangers ... and every once in a while it really does seem as though there's peace on earth.
Such moments never leave us as we relive them throughout the rest of our lives.
We wish all of life were like such moments ... though they're not.
Because the shit hits the fan and ... we lose our job ... the wife's found someone new ... the man we love is abusive ... a child dies ... we learn it's cancer ... Mom needs Hospice ... Dad has Alzheimer ... another Hurricane hits as we still recover from the first ... the Government says all the world shall be taxed ... there are massacres of the innocents for inexplicable reasons.
And we cry out for answers ... for strength ... for help ... comfort ... understanding ... peace ... to make it all go away or ... failing that ... to simply let it all end now.
And God remains silent.
Not a single word.
Not a single sign.
Not a damn thing.
Yet ... maybe ... I'm not saying for certain 'cause Lord knows I'm asking for the same answers and help anyone else is ... but perhaps ... the gift after Christmas is silence.
"Be silent and know that I am God" the Psalmist says (46:10) and I've already stated my case with that baby in the manger ... or the one born in the Taxicab ... the other outside in a cardboard box ... during the oh-so-glorious night ... when the strangers paid it forward ... or you got out just in the nick of time ... or when she learns she's with child.
There's no reason to say anything else really.
If you'd tune out all the other noise in your life ... block the internal voices ... the external technology ... questioning the mess you've gotten yourself in ... the demands of others ... the desire to have more than you got ... the longing for things you're losing or have lost ... even stop asking the damn questions and just shut up and be silent.
Maybe then we could see what comes after Christmas.
Because God knows it's in the silence somewhere.
Whatever it is ... ending up making for Jesus bursting on the scene when he was ready ... though God knows the world wasn't.
I suspect it's going to be the same when he comes bursting inside of us.
If we're ever silent enough, for long enough, to notice.
