They are to stay in that city until they have stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then they may go back to their own home in the town from which they fled.” – Joshua 20:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 11, 2015): Joshua 20

If you are counting it down, we are now just two weeks away from Christmas. As a child, Christmas Day was my favorite day of the year, and two weeks could feel like an eternity. There was magic in the night that went before and the day that came after. I can remember standing on my little sisters bed on Christmas Eve looking out at the night sky (my parents thought we were both asleep) looking for a plane with a flashing red light that I could convince her was Santa and his sleigh. I know, some frown on the idea of telling stories about Santa to children but, to be honest, I still like to hear them – and tell them. There is magic in the story, and Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the Jolly Old Elf.

But the real story is just as magical. It tells the story of the birth of a baby who would change and shape the way we think and live. This was his entrance into our failed world, because that is all that this world is – failed. How can we, even for a moment, believe that the world is a success when gunmen enter into a Christmas Party and kill more than a dozen people - as happened just over a week ago in San Bernardino, California? How can it be anything but failed when at this moment people are fighting over things as inconsequential as land and power? How can a world where we have forgotten how to love our neighbor as our self ever be termed a success?

Jesus entered into the world in a manger. It was not the entrance we would have thought for a king. But as he grew, he became a place of refuge for the weak and marginalized around him – because he knew what that felt like first hand. In a world ruled by law, the law breakers found safety in his presence. I think that might have been the reason why his followers seemed to grow so quickly. It didn’t take long for them to realize that with Jesus they were simply safe. He was their city of refuge.

The Book of Hebrews calls Jesus, this child of the manger, our high priest. And one day, this celebrated baby died as a man on a cross. The High Priest was dead. And all of those who found safety in his presence were released to their own homes – where they would tell the story of how the baby of the manger grew up to release them from their own failure. The death of the High Priest meant that they didn’t have to run anymore. He had seen to that. But everyone released went back with a story of the one who had been born in a manger, only to become in himself a City of Refuge, and that when he died he permanently took care of all that had made them guilty in the first place – even though our guilt could never have been called accidental.

And that is truly magical.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 21